His complaints included the usual allegations of corruption; careless use of police facilities; complaints against policemen; need for better police-community relations; need for better financial accountability; mistreatment of prisoners; improved relations between the Police Force and Community Policing Groups and unsatisfactory response to reports of domestic violence and serious crimes.
He also called on the inspectors and sergeants to place greater focus on the further reduction of crime, the reduction of road accidents, the promotion of community policing in communities and the expansion of the Neighbourhood Policing Programme.
The Minister must be aware that there has been a sameness to his annual castigation of the inspectors and sergeants. A year ago, he found fault with the condition of police stations, barracks and compounds; discipline of junior policemen; unsatisfactory handling of complaints from the public; unsatisfactory response to reports; relationship with Community Policing Groups; enlistment of members of the Neighbourhood Police Programme; supervision of lockups at police stations and the establishment of station management committees.
Mr Rohee should wonder why there has been no improvement from year to year. It would be instructive to find out whether the senior officers and divisional commanders who supervise the inspectors and sergeants have been deliberately ignoring his instructions on a grand scale or whether the Force simply does not have the capacity to implement the improvements he keeps calling for. Rather than hector the inspectors and sergeants repeatedly, they should also be encouraged to speak out openly about what they need on a day-to-day basis to improve their sub-divisions and stations.
The Minister did pledge the administration’s the support in reforming the Force through the Citizen Security Programme and the Security Sector Reform Plan this year. But he is the best placed person to understand the limitations of both. The former had been stalled since 2008 and it was only last week that its coordinator Khemraj Rai announced its re-launch.
The latter was stopped dead in its tracks last year after the British government’s withdrawal. The announcement of details of how the local plan will be refinanced, who will coordinate it and when it will be re-launched is awaited.
The Minister avoided making public references to the administration’s six-year delay in introducing the recommendations of the Disciplined Forces Commission or its five-year delay in implementing its National Drug Strategy Master Plan. Mr Rohee cannot have it both ways. He cannot fail to implement the root-and-branch institutional reform that is needed and expect that there will be magical improvement in the Force’s performance.
After more than three years as the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Rohee must be aware of the fundamental causes of the problems facing the majority of stations. It is a waste of time for him to show up to iterate the previous year’s reproof without taking the necessary governmental and ministerial action to effect the very reforms which have been recommended repeatedly over the past decade.
If the Minister really wants to improve the Police Force’s performance, he should address his concerns to the policy-makers who bizarrely jettisoned the British-funded Security Sector Reform Action Plan and continue to block the implementation of the recommendations of the Disciplined Forces Commission. The inspectors and sergeants cannot be blamed for those egregious blunders.
