The Police Force is a broken institution

Feb 28, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Peeping Tom…

Kaieteur News- It was recently declared—by none other than the President—that if one pays a bribe to a police officer, one is complicit in the problem of corruption. Now, this is an astonishing revelation, on par with the discovery that water is wet or that a mosquito’s purpose in life is to ruin yours.

Of course, bribery has two sides: the giver and the taker. But let’s not allow this grand philosophical detour to distract from the real issue—that our police officers are moonlighting as unofficial toll collectors, supplementing their income one folded bill at a time.

When a police officer accepts a bribe, it is not an ethical dilemma; it is a business transaction. And business, dear readers, is booming. The streets have turned into negotiation tables, where an expired license or a slightly adventurous speed limit becomes the opening bid. The hapless driver, caught in the headlights like a deer about to be fined into oblivion, is gently nudged towards an alternative solution—one that involves no paperwork, no points on the license, and, most importantly, no receipts.

But let’s talk about this idea of co-responsibility, which is the equivalent of blaming both the cat and the canary for the disappearance of the latter. Yes, technically, the bird could have flown away if it had the good sense to be somewhere else. But when one party holds the badge, the ticket, and the power to determine whether you spend the next few hours making futile hand gestures at a bureaucratic desk, the balance of guilt is hardly equal.

One might argue that if people stopped offering bribes, police officers would stop taking them. This is a charmingly naive view of human nature, akin to saying that if banks stopped having money, robbers would cease to exist. It assumes that people gleefully hand over their hard-earned cash for the sheer thrill of it. In reality, most bribes are not freely given; they are tactfully extracted, subtly suggested, and, in some cases, practically invoiced.

When the highest office in the land frames corruption as being part moral failing of the populace rather than a systemic failure of the institution, then we have to be concerned. The issue isn’t that people are corrupt; the issue is that corruption has become so embedded in the system that people feel they have no choice.

If the President truly wants to tackle bribery, let’s start by making it less appealing for the police to engage in this lucrative side hustle. Here’s a revolutionary idea: Pay them better. No, really. If an officer’s official salary can’t compete with the “generosity” of the driver of a tinted vehicle, then we shouldn’t be surprised when traffic stops turn into silent auctions.

Next, how about some actual enforcement? Corrupt officers should be held accountable. Arrested. Prosecuted. Possibly forced to work an actual desk job where their only opportunity for illicit gain is stealing office supplies.

And then there’s the matter of technology. Other countries have figured out that putting cameras on officers and digitizing processes makes it significantly harder for a bribe to change hands without video evidence appearing on the evening news. We now have that here but how do we know for how long and just when these cameras are going to be turned on. There are still stops taking place in front of police stations where no cameras are being worn. There are still groups of policemen who make random stops on vehicles. The public is not sure just what constitutes a road block from a group of policemen stopping vehicles behind the Botanic Gardens.

What we need is an approach that recognizes that when a system is broken, those who rely on it will behave accordingly. If a man is drowning, you don’t blame him for grabbing onto whatever lifeline he can. And if a driver, desperate to avoid an unnecessary legal ordeal, slides a bill into the hands of an officer, the real question should be: Why did he feel he had no other choice?

Corruption does not thrive in a vacuum. It thrives where it is tolerated, where it is excused, and where it is quietly shuffled under the rug. Instead of pointing fingers at drivers trying to escape an absurdly tangled web of inconvenience, let’s point them at those who use their position to turn law enforcement into a revenue-generating enterprise.

So, let’s not be distracted by the co-responsibility argument. Let’s not allow it to become the convenient excuse that prevents real action. Let’s demand better, not only from ourselves but from those who swore an oath to serve and protect. And if any officers feel the sudden urge to retire from their roadside negotiations, well, let’s just say the rest of us won’t miss the opportunity to keep our wallets a little heavier.

(The Police Force is a broken institution)

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)  

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• Cat, ethical dilemma, Peeping Tom, philosophical detour, Police officer

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