The Anti-kidnapping unit

Apr 16, 2014 Editorial

It is hardly surprising that there is confusion over whether an anti-kidnapping unit exists within the Guyana Police Force, with the Minister of Home Affairs saying one thing and the acting Commissioner of Police saying something else.
What would not be surprising is the state of disbelief that would attend any claim that the Force does not have an anti-kidnapping unit – especially when citizens remember the rampant spate of discriminatory kidnappings during the crime spree, beginning in 2002.
As a previous column noted, initiatives are thrown together in an ad hoc fashion that is reflective of a knee-jerk, with no thought given to sustainability.
If, as the acting Commissioner is reported as saying, the establishing an anti-kidnapping unit makes no sense because of the limited number of those events, then one is forced to wonder why certain functions peculiar to such a unit could not be assigned to the newly-formed SWAT unit which – for the most part – will be on standby.
It does not take any stretch of imagination to see the usefulness of such an initiative (the word to watch is ‘initiative’) which will be utilizing at least one of the cross-cutting skills necessary for both units’ effectiveness.
The days are long past when an officer is sent on overseas courses with no serious thought given to knowledge and skills transfer upon his return. Any SWAT unit worthy of its name will have training in Crisis Response; Crisis Negotiation; Hostage Negotiation; Hostage Rescue; and Critical Incident Management, just to name a few.
A unit tasked with anti-kidnapping response will be sure to be possessed of skills in the areas of Kidnap Incident Management; Critical Incident Management; and Crisis Negotiation. Our resource-constraints situation requires therefore, a cost-effective and pooling of law enforcement skills and knowledge for the optimum benefit of the people.
It is not unlikely that in addition to incidents requiring SWAT intervention including hostage rescue, barricaded subjects, high-risk arrests, surveillance and operations not normally experienced during every day policing activities, that the unit would be deployed in response to anti-kidnapping incidents.
What should be of immediate concern is our need for reassurance that the intelligence, logistics, and technical systems have been operationalized to support tactical missions.
Another emergent issue that must not be entertained because of its potential to compromise the rigorous physical fitness and capacity demands of a tightly-knit SWAT unit is the recent unseemly clamouring for ethnic balance; the less said on that subject the better for all concerned.
We obviously do not want anything to undermine the purpose of the intensive training that these ranks are undergoing if they are to be equipped with the capacity to deal with, among other things, the challenges of kidnapping if they are so tasked.
Being a member of an important team like SWAT might appear attractive, even sexy, to use the current term in vogue, but the realities of typical SWAT assignments require unswerving personal commitment and a desire to be the best one can be under the most trying of circumstances.
It is therefore our expectation that our very own will be required to train in full call-out gear to create a realistic amount of resistance that can be expected during call-outs and will also create exertion far more quickly and realistically than training without gear does. This is vital for stamina development and professional service delivery.
The reported remarks again attributed to the acting Commissioner that an anti-kidnap unit response is pooled from ranks throughout the country, defies logic. How is this response supposed to be operationalised and coordinated?
This is not intended as an unkind thought, but perhaps the acting Commissioner might wish to exercise a bit more caution in how he frames his responses to contentious issues with which he will be confronted from time to time. Properly utilised public relations and research departments could provide invaluable assistance in these instances.
Moreover, we need to be wary of the temptation to use SWAT to enforce less serious crimes. We can only hope that the local unit will not be instructed to attend to noise nuisance calls or marijuana eradication exercises, or conduct road blocks for traffic offences.

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The Anti-kidnapping unit

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