Towards more Professional Policing

May 05, 2019 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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(Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, spoke in mid-January this year at the Guyana Police Force’s Annual Officers Conference at Eve Leary. Below is an abridgement of his charge to the participants)

“We live in a geopolitical space that is extraordinarily violent. I would like to quote from an IDB Technical Document titled: “Crime and Violence: Obstacles to Development in Latin America and Caribbean Cities”. It says that this (Latin America and the Caribbean) hemisphere is “the most violent geographic area on planet earth”.
There are some startling statistics in this document. Brazil registers the world’s highest absolute number of homicides, more than 56,000 a year. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, every fifteen minutes a young citizen, usually an adolescent male, is murdered. There are roughly 400 killings a day, or 140,000 a year. Similarly, when external causes of death (homicide, suicide and traffic accidents) are compared, Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region where homicide is the main cause of death (52%). Our region is home to only 8% of the global population, but our people commit 33% of homicides in the world.
Even the world’s hardest hit war zones don’t compete. Between 2001 and 2014, roughly 26,000 civilians died as a result of fighting in Afghanistan. Over the same period, 67,000 Hondurans were murdered, and Honduras (in Central America) has just one-third of the population of Afghanistan.
The IDB’s Technical Document talks about the prevalence of guns, of harsh socio-economic circumstances, and also high levels of interpersonal violence.
The 2 questions to be asked are: what specifically happens in Guyana, and what is to be done. These questions are necessary because with what is going on around us – so much gun violence, trafficking in persons, and trafficking in drugs which help to foster this kind of violence – we have to ensure that the right things are done.
So allow me to say something about our local geographic space. The Homicide Monitor of the IDB states that Guyana’s 2017 homicide figures indicate (the 2018 figures are not out yet), that although our numbers are not perfect, we are doing far superior to some of our Caribbean sister countries. The homicide rate is generally calculated against 100,000 of the population. In Jamaica which had 2.8 million people in 2017, there were 1,616 murders – a rate of 56 per 100,000.
In Trinidad and Tobago for 2017, they had 36 homicides per 100,000. In St. Lucia it was 34 with the lowest in Barbados at 11 per 100,000. Guyana ranked among the lowest with 15 per 100,000 in 2017.
That is the statistic that we are working with to make a proper assessment of where we are. It is above the world average of 12 per 100,000 so we still have a lot of work to improve it.
Similarly, the statistics that we have for robberies and other serious offences reveal they are on the decline. But that is no reason to celebrate. We must strive for Zero, as difficult as it is.
Our citizen security reform process started a while ago with 2 main elements – the Citizens Security Strengthening program funded by the IDB, and the UK Security Sector Reform programme that has to be accelerated. These programmes encompass all sectors of law enforcement:
• Police Maritime programme is an important aspect considering the high number of rivers and creeks in this land of many waters
• Aviation Security Review
• Police Training Review to enable us to measure up to international best practice
All of this leads to a more professional police force.
None of the reform programme is going to be easy, especially considering the fact that organizational dynamics create a certain level of conservatism, i.e. people like things to remain as they are; people do not like change.
I am happy to say, however, that the majority of the Officers whom I have interacted with have agreed that there is need for change. We have to change our thinking that encourages us to respond to the Law, not to political interference, but to protect human rights, citizens’ rights. You have to limit the use of force and prioritize citizens’ protection.
Where there is a will, there is a way. That will and that way must come from individual effort. Since this is our society, and we have to serve and protect it, then we as individuals must ensure that we have the will to make the way to ensure that the society is served and protected at every level. At this the highest levels of the Police Force, we have to do more to ensure that that professionalism becomes dominant in our personal everyday activities as Officers.
During Citizen Security Week in late November 2018, a very major Latin American Conference was held in Chile, and exactly what we are doing in our reform process, is what the Conference has recommended for all countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.
We have all come to realize (as main resolutions out of that conference) that academic training and professionalization of the police at the basic level is a must; promotion and gender equality are important; the removal of officers who have been compromised by crime and corruption – a must; improvement of the academic (reinforcement) infrastructure within the police force – a must; professionalization of criminal investigation – a must; Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems – a must; and, coordination with other entities of law enforcement like the GRA, CANU and other enforcement units, a very necessary component of law enforcement.
A more qualified, smarter Officer is the best option for the security and intelligence in any country. We have to have smart, trained people, and of course better quality recruits. But best of all, we have to strengthen our relationships with the communities that we serve and protect.”

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