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Law and order
It is possible to achieve what may seem to be the impossible. It is possible to dismantle the Guyana Police Force without affecting law and order in Guyana.
In a previous column, I did argue reforming the Guyana Police Force would fail because a culture of corruption and abuse had become so embedded that it was impossible to salvage whatever good may still exists within that institution.
The Commissioner of Police (acting) is trying his best. He has indicated that in one month thirty ranks have been disciplined. He explained that 15 of them have been dismissed. It is doubtful that has ever happened before in the history of the Guyana Police Force.
He is trying to stamp out the practice of police soliciting bribes from members of the public. He is trying his best but he will face stern resistance because the practice of traffic stops and the soliciting of bribers have become, for too long, a sub culture of the Guyana Police Force.
There are young police officers who do miracles with the small salaries they receive each month. Some of them are driving fancy cars and they are still constables. Many policemen have interests in public transportation; many of them have businesses on the side. They are being allowed to moonlight to supplement their income providing they seek permission. But how many of them have established these businesses with illegal monies? We do not know. But the public has its own ideas and this relates to the perception that corruption is rampant in the Guyana Police Force.
The reform of the Police Force cannot change a sub culture that has developed over four decades. It is a mission impossible.
What is possible, though, is the dismantling of the Guyana Police Force and the creation of a brand new institution, less 90% of the existing staff, without affecting law and order.
The Guyana Police Force cannot be dismantled at one time. You cannot remove, all at once, the institution concerned with enforcing law and order in the country. But it can be done in a systematic way.
The manner in which the Guyana Police Force is organized lends itself to a new institution being created within a short period of three years.
There are many non-policing functions which are at present being carried out by the Guyana Police Force which result in a misallocation of resources of the Force and which is responsible for administrative inefficiency. Instead of fighting crime, the police are statutorily burdened with a host of other functions which not only take up a great deal of their time and resources but also contribute to corruption.
The Guyana Police Force should be relieved of immigration functions. It should be relieved of certifying the road worthiness of vehicles. The police should be relieved to having to process and issue gun licenses. They should be freed of having to give permission for minibuses which are zoned in one area to traverse another area. They should be freed of granting certificates of good standing with the law or what is called “police clearance.”
If you take away these non-core functions from the Guyana Police Force, not only will corruption be reduced but also, it will be easier to rebuild the force because it will free hundreds of police ranks to do police work.
It will not necessarily improve policing and this may be the reason why the Ministry of Home Affairs has not yet moved in this direction. It will however create the space needed for new recruitment from juniors to senior ranks into the force and allow for a brand new police force to be recreated.
The Police are not respected in Guyana. They are feared. The country needs a police force that is not feared but one that is respected. This cannot be achieved through reforms.
It has been announced, on The Public Interest, that security experts will soon be here to advise the government. These experts must try, when they come, to get a grip on the sub culture of the Guyana Police Force. They will realize, if they do, that you cannot effect change to the Guyana Police Force by reforms.
A new security organization needs to be built from the bottom up and it is possible to do so in Guyana comprising law and order.
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