The need for urgent reforms in the Police Force

Mar 01, 2014 Editorial

Regardless of how much the Minister of Home Affairs would like us to believe that a professional Guyana Police Force resides among his dearest aspirations, his own colleagues seem bent on denying him that accomplishment. Precedents are being set right and left as they pertain to the enforcement of law and order in this country that would make the most despotic of administrations take due notice. How else does one describe the flouting of the law by the elite and the seeming acceptance by the police of this type of superior behavior? A report of assault against a minister’s son is not investigated with the dispatch which seems reserved for the residents of Albouystown or any of the wards south of Georgetown, but the offender is not even arrested. It is almost as if the legal process that citizens anticipate in circumstances such as these are held in abeyance because of who is involved.
An allegation that a government minister wages a drunken attack on a youth is not investigated nor is the brawler even invited to the police station. These are issues which cry out for a police force unhampered by considerations of politics and race. A democratic society is intolerant of aberrations such as these. The usual consequence is a reconfiguration of the political administrative arrangement of the country. But these abnormalities are extended even further by a government minister’s departure from the scene of a possible fatal accident. The subsequent action was a tasteless demonstration that money is the only thing that matters in every situation. But there are several things very wrong in scenarios of this nature. First, certain offences were committed outside of the injured parties’ ability to waive police involvement. The police investigation of careless, reckless, or dangerous driving cannot simply be avoided by an agreement between parties to accept compensation for damages suffered.
There is no way that the police can be reasonably tasked to curb drunken/distracted driving, or reduce fatal accidents by the aforementioned causes. It is just not possible to ascribe that kind of unlawful behavior only to the ordinary citizens who are expected to subject themselves to the various impediments to their constitutional right to free movement. The law abiding citizen unless she/he is seriously injured and in need of immediate medical treatment, must remain at the scene of an accident until the police arrive. If the citizen apprehends danger to his/her person by an angry crowd then she/he may depart the scene and go to the nearest police station where a report can be made. This does not seem to be the case in the incidents involving government officials in this country. It would be interesting to know if this apprehension exists in the minds of these ‘well-beloved guardians’ of our public trust that would prompt them to leave without assuring themselves that no one is seriously in need of medical attention.
The ordinary citizen-in-the street knows quite well that she/he must report an accident within twenty-four hours, but must submit to a police-administered breathalyser test to determine her/his blood alcohol content. It is manifestly unfair to expect compliance with legal requirements only from the underprivileged while the political elite and nouveau riche get a free pass. If these things do not make the minister responsible for public safety look inept then it would be interesting to know what it will take for him to realize that his colleagues are doing him no favours by their very indiscretions. It is as if they want him to fail in his endeavours, probably in the belief that if people are so focused on their insecurity, the other policy failings would be ignored. In other words, acts of omission or commission of misfeasance and/or malfeasance by Cabinet colleagues are likely to flourish undetected as long as there is an obvious whipping boy in Clement J. Rohee.
No amount of budgetary allocations will make the work of the police any easier or more professional if these demotivating and demoralising issues continue to beset the modernisation drive. The pertinent question remains on whether these indications of a dysfunctional system are engaging the attention of the unit set up for the purpose of reforming the Guyana Police Force?

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