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A recurring theme

Nov 06, 2010 Editorial

The police, on Thursday, unveiled plans for making the country safer during the Christmas holidays. Indeed, the Christmas holidays are the busiest during the year; these are the times when businesses garner about sixty per cent of their annual sales. It is as if people simply save all year round just to shop during this period.
There will be increased police patrols especially in the busy shopping areas and in those areas where crime is almost endemic. Ranks will be removed from desk duty for the two months when the Christmas programme would be in effect.
At first glance one would see this as an admission that crime is beyond the control of the police hence the need for increased patrols and additional measures at containment. And the police tacitly admit that this may be the case but for an entirely different reason.
The Crime Chief was at pains to highlight the challenges to good policing. He identified the propensity of people to move around with large sums of cash; he identified the reluctance of people to cooperate with the police in the wake of robberies; he identified the backlog in the courts.
Most of the robberies have occurred in the capital where there is the greatest concentration of people. About thirty per cent of the population lives in the city. All the major banking institutions and businesses are located in the city. Combined, these provide ample scope for people with criminal intentions.
The Crime Chief, like so many decision makers, is calling for a change to plastic money. Indeed, without cash there would be no incentive for the robberies. Indeed, there could be another kind of crime—fraud—but the plus is that there would be the absence of the violence that accompanies attacks on people with large sums of cash.
Then there are the victims who decline to face their assailants in an identification parade. The police have done their damnedest. They have instituted two-way mirrors so that the person on parade has no way of seeing who would be identifying them.
But these very victims keep refusing. The result is that the police may make an arrest but with no firm evidence, they have no other option but to release the suspect to return to what he knows best.
Then we come to the courts. More often that not, unless the accused pleads guilty, matters would languish in the courts. Offences of robbery are bailable so the accused is released to continue harassing people sometimes violently.
How often have we not heard prosecutors announcing to the court that the accused have similar matters pending in other courts? These are the repeat offenders.
And this is allowed to happen because the prisons are overcrowded to the point where they are no longer safe for the people entrusted with keeping the prisoners away from society.
One must now wonder whether the very society that the police are trying to make safe is not creating the problems and becoming a haven for the criminals. Indeed, for the years the police have been increasing patrols in the busy shopping areas there have been less attacks on business places.
But the very people who demand protection can do so much more in this the electronic age. For the past two years the authorities have been encouraging people to install cameras on their premises. The cameras may not halt crimes but they would most surely help apprehend the perpetrators.
The police have also taken steps to ease the traffic nightmare. This year, there are so many more cars on the roads and the almost non-existent parking places have been rendered redundant. The police would not tolerate the madness. They are already trying to halt the carnage that is occurring on the streets. More people have already died on the streets than last year.
The next few months are going to be interesting but we must ask, after the Christmas holidays, what? Will the criminals lie low until the police revert to their offices?

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