The need for a properly structured system

Jan 19, 2014 Editorial

Just as the more charitable among us were beginning to believe that the Guyana Police Force should be given the chance to reform itself, Guyanese have been confronted with a damning allegation which, if confirmed, would suggest that there is no limit to the depths of depravity to which some of its members are prepared to sink.
We await the conclusion of the Commissioner-ordered investigation into the matter, in light of the reported claim that Colwyn Harding’s injuries are consistent with an incarcerated hernia. Persons are beginning to note a certain pattern in respect of the alleged perpetrators of these heinous acts and to make comparisons with other less injurious offences where the guilty officers are given jail terms.
As an example, four ranks were each sentenced to eighteen months in prison for assaulting the son of a very senior officer’s friend, while the two who allegedly burned the genitals of a boy were rewarded with transfers. It is to be hoped that Harding’s relatives are not placed in a similar situation of unanswered questions.
Noteworthy in all of this is the unsettling thought that if ranks continue to believe that they will not be visited with sanctions for wrongdoing then there really is no hope of justice for the hapless citizen who happens to be in the “wrong place at the wrong time.” One very noticeable fact is that there seems to be a fixation of the alleged manner of assault among police officers if two incidents which occurred in the US were to be juxtaposed with our recent exposure. In 2008, Michael Mineo was sodomised with a police baton on a subway platform by Detective Richard Kern while two other officers stood by. Mineo sued for US$220 million. In 1997, Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant was attacked with a broomstick in a Brooklyn police station.
Whatever the outcome of the Colwyn Harding case, serving members of the Guyana Police Force should do all in their power to change the present culture of violence and abuse meted out to members of the public. An ethical stand must be immediately taken at all levels.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, is the laid back approach by the police in dealing with the poorer class, as seen when very senior officers can claim that their ignorance of the gravity of the assault allegation was responsible for a delay in following up the report. When another can allude to a failure of supervision if an incident is witnessed by other persons then it surely is time for the Minister of Home Affairs to consider whether these senior positions are filled by the right persons and to advise the Police Service Commission accordingly.
It is time that the government examines ways of removing ineffectual senior officers by either transferring them to other public sector agencies, or letting them go with all their benefits in the interest of public safety. Maybe it is time to search among the second and third tier of officers for leadership material and to root out complacency and senseless stonewalling.
What the GPF must do as a matter of extreme urgency is to identify police officers with potential problems and who may be prone to violence. In some places, early warning signals – mechanisms which are data driven – are used to identify officers with problematic behaviours and to expose them to counseling or training interventions.
It must be said that chief among the reasons for skepticism about the proposed SWAT unit is the behaviour of members of former special units whose misconduct was virtually unchecked. Little or no effort was made to recognize and manage the risks associated with damage to police credibility, and to community-police relations. Indeed no attempt seems to have been made to seek the expertise of the psychologists and social workers to provide the sort of intervention services which were clearly needed to correct inappropriate individual behaviour.
A properly structured and implemented early identification/warning system can contribute greatly to officers’ well-being by correcting problematic behaviour in a timely fashion. This can only result in a more ethical body that citizens will be only too glad to trust.

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The need for a properly structured system

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