How could we rid the force of corrupt cops?

Nov 30, 2017 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
When police officers, who are supposed to be the guardians of the law, are hauled before the courts, you have a picture of a hopeless society. Lost hope, lost trust and confidence in the people who have sworn to protect and serve. I am speaking of police officers being dragged into court for heinous crimes like armed robbery, trafficking in drugs, murder, plotting to kill civilians and many other crimes. It tells you how messed up we have become as a society.
If that is not enough, when you look at the crime spree years you see the corrupt criminal handiwork of police officers who plotted and killed others of their own. During those years, police officers were known to have passed on classified information to criminals as to the whereabouts and movements of the police officers in their hunt to recapture wanted criminals. Others of their own were thrown under the bus for going after criminals. Very mind boggling, to say the least.
Even when you look at the activities of the much talked about drug kingpin Roger Khan, you see a mini-army of ex-police, ex-army personnel who were willing and able to do anything for Khan. I would go the extra mile to say some in the current force were also knowledgeable or privy to the goings-on in Khan’s Empire.
Politics too showed its ugly head. The PNC is known to have beatified a criminal by draping his coffin with the sacred flag of this country. He too was an ex-army personnel caught on the wrong side of the law. But, for some demonic reason that party thought it appropriate and best to honour him in that way. Interesting!
Criminality is at its best when seized drugs cannot be accounted for, drugs seized, tagged and held in tightest security, well, so it seems, because those drugs mysteriously disappeared. Where to and by whom, is still a mystery. Where did the drugs go? How did the drugs take flight through police security? You get my drift, you see where we are going as a nation.
So, when a criminal, note my words, a criminal could openly identify a police officer as the mastermind behind a brutal homicide, that criminal should be given rapt attention. Authorities should pay keen attention to his revelations on this matter. Further, that criminal should be afforded all the witness protection he can get under the law to divulge information that might be crucial to unlock this case and many others.
What I am advocating here is a tried and proven stratagem that has worked well in the developed countries, which brought them handsome results. Guyana must make urgent implementation so that we can get headway into the sanitation of our police force. Barring this fact, we would be forever faced with the perennial problem of corrupt cops.
The facts are there to bring them in guilty or exonerate them, wherever it leads. Questions that must be answered, why was this policeman so actively involved in the activities of criminals of a certain kind? Why? Why was he allowed to act outside of his jurisdiction? It is illegal under police law for an officer to be so embroiled in the criminal activities outside of his jurisdiction?
This is more than being a good cop, he would be too good to be true. Is there more to his actions than meets the eye? Why did he want to confront his accuser when the accuser is unrepresented, and under the intimidating watch of him, an armed officer? Questions and more questions? And lastly, what about this officer’s finances and his rise to stardom, could the authorities take a look at his bank statements? What of his assets, how were they acquired? Was it solely based on his monthly salary or otherwise? How did he make such a giant leap financially in such a short time-frame?
These are all pointed questions that deserve honest answers. The metropolitan countries use this method to purge ranks of corrupt cops, and I cannot see why we can’t adopt the same principle here. But, the political red tape that is so embedded in the system, clouds every attempt to rid the force of these odious individuals.
Credit must be given to the previous PPP/C Administration for its attempts to rid the force of these officers; they definitely tried. Being aware of corrupt and inept members of the police force, they implemented the polygraph method of purging the corrupt elements there. This government, when in opposition, vehemently objected to it, saying it was not admissible in a court of law, hence it was an illegal act.
Be that as it may, the mere threat of being brought under the radar for corrupt practices caused members of the force to cease their criminal activities. So, the polygraph did work after all. However, what we see at the present moment is a brazen resurgence of the criminal side of the police. Against this backdrop of institutionalized criminal activity our country is doomed. In the light of the foregoing, urgent remedial action has to be taken to get some sense of decency and justice in the force and in our country again.
Neil Adams

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