Promotions and the police officers

Dec 22, 2013 Editorial

Based upon observations it seems likely that annual promotions within the officer ranks of the Guyana Police Force will once again be stagnated this time due to the absence of a quorum in the virtually defunct Police Service Commission.
The worrying factor is the apparent lack of objective criteria whereby ranks particularly gazetted officers are evaluated for advancement in the GPF. Anecdotal evidence suggests that among the reasons persons are not promoted are to be found in two principal areas namely (i) pending disciplinary matter(s); and(ii) adverse annual confidential report(s).
However it is not unknown that favoured officers have been beneficiaries of promotions sometimes to the extent of superseding more worthy candidates. Some of these (un)worthy things have been given a free ride never having experienced the travails of professional policing.
The other side of that coin is that those officers who find themselves in disfavour are stagnated sometimes to the point of opting to resign in circumstances that can aptly be described as constructive dismissal, or to not rock the boat and go with the flow until retirement so as not to jeopardise their retirement benefits.
Two such cases come to mind where until her retirement the most senior of Assistant Superintendents was passed over for promotion for more than ten years. The other instance is where the most senior of Superintendents has been consistently superseded by persons less experienced/qualified for a number of years.
The ostensible reason is that there are pending disciplinary matters against both of these officers. The fact that these people’s right to a hearing has been violated contrary to the principles of natural justice seems not to have made any impression on anyone. To regularly raise the spectre of disciplinary inquiries whenever the time approaches for the PSC to consider promotions recommendations reeks of vindictiveness sheltering in an unstructured, opaque and disorganized process.
Many of those promoted to their level of incompetence are prone to exhibit the worst form of leadership behavior including oppressive and tyrannical conduct towards subordinates. The findings of a survey on this aspect might be revealing for the administration.
The issue here is the example which we are seeking to provide the young and impressionable among us. Can anyone fault either of those two officers if they were to paint a less than favourable picture of the current realities? If officers are being investigated for any infraction of the Standing Orders then it is to be expected that they should face an expeditious hearing of the matter. To suspend indefinitely a disciplinary inquiry is akin to Damocles’s plight and is essentially perverse, and a denial of natural justice.
Officers desirous of being promoted should be required to meet certain stated objective criteria, including critical thinking skills which consist of organized and critical thought that facilitates good judgment. They must demonstrate the ability to arrive at (and justify) conclusions; prioritize ideas; apply strategies for dealing with error, improbability, and ambiguity; and to value and access information.
Officers should be afforded the opportunity to be guided by a superior officer if their performance is evaluated as not up to the expected standard for promotion to the next level. Those aggrieved officers who are impacted negatively by a process that they perceive to be skewed should be provided with the opportunity for a review.
It is high time that a properly constituted, untainted and functioning PSC demands of the Force administration that this unprincipled practice cease forthwith. A verifiable list of seniority should accompany recommendations for promotion along with detailed explanations and supporting documentation showing why seniors are being superseded.
In other words the potential for subjectivity and abuse of the process must be removed or – at the very least, considerably reduced. Holdovers of disciplinary matters should not be a feature in any new dispensation which speaks of reforms and police modernization.

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Promotions and the police officers

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