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Boastful PPP and PNC have failed Guyanese

Oct 09, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The joke around town is that the CID Headquarters “colder than the ice factory”. The talk is that when matters end up there, many just become cold cases, joining the long list of unsolved crimes.
That is not a fair assessment. The police have been successful in solving a number of crimes, including some spectacular ones for which they deserve but hardly get any credits.
Such is the nature of things in Guyana. When the police do good, no one notices their good work but when they cannot solve a crime, the whole country laments their performance.
So when the police do good we must commend them. And when they mess up we must say to them that they have not done well, but we must still encourage the Force to do well because that is their duty.
A few weeks ago, a terrible thing happened. Somebody dragged a girl under a car after snatching her cell phone. The girl died and there was immediate outrage. Then reports began to circulate that a man and his relative were held. There was talk about strands of hair being found underneath the car. Strange that strands of hair would be left under a car that had driven away from the scene of a crime. But the public felt that the police were on the right track.
Then it became clear that the police were still investigating, because reports began to circulate that the police had held somebody else. Another cold case in the making?
Over the past few weeks some eight persons have been gunned down in execution-style killings. The reports suggest that the police believe that these killings are gang-related and arise because of some stolen drugs. The pressure is mounting on the police to solve the crimes. A whole set of photographs are published in the newspaper for persons wanted but no mention was made for what specific crime they are wanted. Do the police really expect to be taken seriously this time?
Some people are apprehensive. They are speculating that the police are under pressure to take some action. They are not confident that anything will materialise from these wanted bulletins.
It is hard work for the police. The detectives have their work cut out. The pressure obviously is on them to solve crimes. But it takes painstaking work to solve a crime and Guyana has limited resources.
We probably today have less detectives working in the police force than we had years ago when the crime rate was far less. There is need for more crime-fighters; need for some of these anti-crime ranks to stop harassing motorists and concentrate on non-traffic offences. It is time to put more staff within the stations so that the police can have an adequate complement for both the day and night shifts. Right now police stations are undermanned. They need staff.
There are many young people out there who need jobs. Many of them can write well. But they do not want a uniformed job. In the meantime, there are some ranks in the police station who need to be moved into the detective stream to help solve crimes.
So, how about giving these kids some employment without them having to be formally inducted into the force? How about a one-year stint whereby they can man the front desks and the phone lines and take the reports?
These kids are young and enthusiastic. They will do a good job and it will only be for a short time.
The police need all the help they can get, but they must also show some resolve in fighting crime. Right now the police do not have a good image in the public’s eye and this has to do with the harassment that motorists receive by the police for the slightest infractions.
One way of reversing that image is for the police to break the iceberg, to solve some major crimes based on solid- intelligence gathering and hard evidence, not on trying to look as if they are doing something.

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