Cooperation is a must

Oct 09, 2009 Editorial

For some time now there have been serious efforts by the police to curb so many ills in the society but try as they might the ills seem to outweigh their best efforts.
People are quick to point out that the police are not solving crimes at the rate they would like; they say that the police fail to respond in a timely manner to reports of crimes in progress; that the police are corrupt.
For the past three years the police have been making a concerted effort to woo the public. They have established youth camps and have been working with young children with the hope that the parents would appreciate the job that the police have to do.
This has had some success but apparently not enough because there are still people who are refusing to cooperate when approached. Berbice is at this time the hotbed for crimes. Scarcely a day goes by without some group of criminals attacking a defenceless household and torturing the inmates before escaping with the booty they seek.
Just recently, the police arrested some of them, one of whom was nursing a gunshot wound. The police linked them to a spate of robberies on the Corentyne despite their arrest on West Berbice. They laid charges but the Director of Prosecutions opted to intervene and halt prosecution. She concluded that there was not enough investigation and evidence to support the charges.
She may be correct and indeed the police need to do more. But the assistance of the people is needed. Some victims refuse to identify their attackers when these are placed on an identification parade. They profess to fear retaliation.
What they fail to accept is that the person they refuse to identify may come back to visit them with a vengeance.
There are increased patrols in the city and more often than not the police respond promptly. However, depending on the location of the crime, the response could be somewhat delayed. This has been a bone of contention to the extent that some people insist that the police themselves are the perpetrators.
True. There are rogue cops as was uncovered last year when the police arrested and prosecuted a number of their own. They found groups that were demanding money with menace. As fate would have it, some of the victims refused to testify.
It is the same in many communities where people witness crimes and refuse to come forward. In fact, this is exactly what allowed crimes to flourish in some communities. The criminals pounced and people remained silent. This was the case in Buxton at the height of the crime wave. In the end the very people who protected the criminals became victims and they then understood how it felt. Those who thought that they had had enough found out that they were to become victims for talking against the criminal establishment.
Indeed, there are suspicions. Some people have found out that once a report was made the criminals were duly informed of the name of the person who made the report. Policemen appeared to be in cahoots with the criminals.
This situation must change. Guyana is not the worse place on earth but it is also not the safest, largely because of the refusal of people to form an alliance with the police.
Drug dealers have been forming alliances with the law enforcement to good effect. The public must do the same.
The pay may not be of the best but what everyone fails to realize is that once the society becomes a safer place then less money would be spent on extraneous things and more would be available for the enhanced wages that the police seek.
We are not happy that criminals remain at large because of a lack of cooperation between the police and the society.
We expect a lot and we must be prepared to give more.

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Cooperation is a must

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