Addressing police abuse

Jul 30, 2014 Editorial

The Commissioner of Police has his work cut out if indeed he is serious about addressing allegations of police abuse. At the outset it should be noted that if the Guyana Police Force (GPF) expects to regain public trust and confidence then it has a responsibility to present a system that is open to accepting change.
It has been argued that an open organisation in constant interaction with its environment will be more responsive to external influences by virtue of the openness of the system boundary. (Kast and Rosenzweig 1981)
In our circumstances the external stakeholders are demanding change by way of reform, and therefore the Commissioner has to take full advantage of all resources at his disposal to effect positive change if he is to ensure that his tenure does not end ignominiously. The administration of the GPF must be prepared to identify sources of antagonisms which are likely to produce negative outcomes in the reform process which may include loss of productivity or deliberate forms of sabotage of its efforts.
It would be the height of irony if the GPF administration were to exclude inputs from the environment, since this would have the effect of limiting the stimuli to change, thereby resulting in the perpetuation of a closed system. However, caution must be exercised to reduce the prospects of unplanned changes occurring through the absence of adequate monitoring of key performance indicators of critical environmental activity.
Therefore if the GPF is to take on the challenges of reform, there must be an appreciation of several factors including managerial initiative; social, psychological and cultural factors; structural design; technological developments; and organizational goals and values. Moreover, in all of that, targets should be set to provide a focus for where the change is to take place within the organization, whilst allowing a full understanding of what has to be changed and the consequential effects.
The Commissioner needs to utilize all facets of public communication to inform all stakeholders of the nature of planned changes, how they are being implemented, and – just as importantly, to allay fears, confusion and uncertainty, as well as deflect rumour and speculation.
In the current circumstances there ought not to be any of the above, since the top cop has unambiguously made his intentions public. It is worthy of note that although the GPF may be focused on performance in terms of success criteria, the commissioner will only be allowed to deliver if he gains the support and respect of his officers, and how he motivates them to perform.
The question of police abuse is not new; it has been around since colonial times. What is relatively new is the level and frequency of public complaints of police abuse which undermine public trust, jeopardize investigations, and expose the force to considerable opprobrium.
Police reform it is hoped will address these undesirable behaviours which have no place in the way a democratic police force operates. There is no doubt that unlawful police behaviour is a serious impediment to good police-community relations. There is no question that if recruits are not introduced to courses in professional ethics from the time they enter the police environment, and reinforced in their daily work, the force will produce crooked, corrupt cops. Police abuse is symptomatic of a bigger problem, namely systemic dysfunction. How can the public be guaranteed that new entrants to the GPF are possessed of strong moral values?
The Commissioner mentioned his intention to provide his ranks with access to psychological counseling when they are exposed to traumatic events. This is all to the good, but it would be better if he could go a stage further by introducing interventions to address certain unethical practices such as ranks lying under oath, torturing confessions out of suspects, or fabricating evidence to secure convictions.
It has been argued that the GPF can only accept what the society produces. Inherent in that contention is a refusal to consider measures to deal definitively with those recruits who would have been motivated to join the force to act out their negative perceptions of how a member should behave. The force administration will have to seek an understanding of what motivates ranks to engage in acts of abuse.

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