A PROMISING START!

Aug 11, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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One hundred traffic wardens on our streets is good news. They will certainly make a big difference. They will also signal to those existing ranks in the police force that there are persons out there willing to assume their jobs and that, therefore, the ranks need to take their work more seriously.
This is the way to go in improving the police force. There are hundreds of persons who are willing to do specialized tasks associated with police work but not necessarily be part of the institutional structure of the Guyana Police Force.
That structure is still patterned after the colonial police and involves heavy physical training, drills, living in barracks and following orders and commands without question.
There are many persons in Guyana who would love to be detectives, but do not want to go through all that is necessary to become a member of the police force. These persons want to solve crimes, delve into forensics, but not stand at ease or attention on a drill square. For them, these drills have nothing to do with the skills they have to offer to their country.
Ask them to be part of a march past and they will say no. Ask them to polish their shoes until they can see their faces in them and this will turn them off. Ask them to submit to some officer shouting at them and they are not interested. Ask them to run two miles each day and do other physical training and they will question what that has to do with their jobs.
A great many jobs in the police force do not require the regimen of training which the recruits are put though. Why, for example, would the staff responsible for issuing firearm licences or checking the roadworthiness of vehicles have to be uniformed ranks and go through the normal police training? Why do the clerks in the police station or the typists or the data entry staff have to be uniformed ranks? Why can’t the records staff responsible for issuing police clearances be persons trained strictly in those skills and nothing else?
At all police stations, the front desk is manned by uniformed ranks. If a category of contract workers are created and these workers are trained only in the art of taking reports, then a great number of persons can be employed within the police force just to take reports on criminal activity, either in writing or over the phones.
There are many intelligent young persons just out of school and looking for jobs. They may not be attracted to join the police force. But if they see a job advertised for crime reporters, they may jump to the opportunity. It is something that the Ministry of Home Affairs should consider.
They should ask a private firm to look at this as a business opportunity. The private firm would be required to train a pool of persons in the art of taking crime reports. The company under contract with the police force would then assign these reporters to police stations where they would work under the supervision of the police officers, but strictly in the capacity of taking reports.
There are also many university graduates who are trained in bio-chemistry. Why not employ these individuals and offer them scholarships locally to further their training in forensic science? They benefit from the training and the police force benefits from them being contracted to work with the force for a period of time. Everyone benefits under this arrangement.
Guyana needs a specialized immigration department. It should be removed from under the Guyana Police Force. Imagine if someone comes to Guyana from Eastern Europe and cannot speak a word of English. Imagine the scene at the immigration counter at the airport!
There are a great many Brazilians and Chinese coming into Guyana. How many of our immigrations officers can speak a second language? Here again, jobs can be created. There is no reason why the police should be so short of staff. The only reason why this has happened is because the authorities have not tried to break with the old methods of employment. To get a job in the police force you have to go through training schools. That is old thinking which needs to put aside.
In any event, people are not looking these days, as much as they did in the past, to go into an organization and spend the rest of their lives there. They want greater flexibility in employment, and even in the times when they work. Unfortunately, the labour market is not adapting fast enough to these changes.
The impending appointment of one hundred traffic wardens around the city is therefore an important development in the Guyana Police Force. It means that uniformed ranks can now be redeployed to other areas that may be in greater need of their services.
The new traffic wardens are intended to be deployed around the city, where there is usually a great deal of congestion, and poor parking. They should make a difference. They should be welcomed, and this pattern of employing contract employees should be replicated in other areas of the Guyana Police Force.

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