It is ironic in many ways that need not be elaborated that Surinamese President Desi Bouterse last week admonished his police force not to behave like “Hitler’s Gestapo” and warning that those responsible for barbaric actions can expect severe sanctions.
His words contrast with the strident rhetoric of President Jagdeo who recently told the police officers’ conference here that the police must be prepared to shoot to kill, a force that is already well known for its brutality and trigger-happiness.
Perhaps more appropriate and relevant to the Guyana situation was the installing on Wednesday of a new Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Commission and what he had to say after his accession. Professor Ramesh Deosaran, a criminologist, was sworn in amid the controversy surrounding his dismissed predecessor’s contention that the police force was ethnically unbalanced.
In remarks following his swearing in, Professor Deosaran homed in on the need to hold the head of the police force, Canadian citizen Dwayne Gibbs, accountable and to dismiss him if he could not satisfy the Commission on the efficacy of his efforts to reduce the rampant crime that has gripped the Twin-Island Republic.
Professor Deosaran told the media “I would want to do an assessment of the Commissioner’s work. For example, he is here for over six months and he has, or should have produced a report in the first six months of his service. I would like to make a serious assessment of his duties, his functions and what results have been accrued so far”.
He added “The Commission means business, I mean business, accountability, fairness and results and I want to make the public assured that the Police Service will be facing a new wave of accountability”.
What a refreshing departure from the hedging that attends the work of many of these service commissions.
If the Police Service Commission here had subjected the police commissioners who held office over the last 19 years or so to the standard that professor Deosaran intends to employ it is more than likely that their tenures would have been severely shortened on the grounds of non-performance. Of course, the revised constitution ensconces the power of appointing commissioners in the hands of the President. Unfortunately, in appointments across the board, this President has put the ability to control appointees above professionalism in the rankings.
It is precisely the absence of any means of judging and evaluating police commissioners here which has led to the drastic deterioration of policing standards and runaway crime. Were Top Cops held accountable it is more than likely that the ship of state would have found a more secure harbour.
Each passing day exposes the mediocrity and incompetence that prevails in the force and which the government is indulging as it wants to maintain the iron-fisted political control of law enforcement.
Such shortsightedness has led to a low solution rate for major crimes and emboldened triggermen and others to believe that they can operate with impunity and without any prospect of being apprehended or successfully prosecuted.
A case in point is the series of execution-style killings over the last 18 months or so. As reported in the Sunday Stabroek of April 3rd, only one, out of a dozen of these cases, has seen anyone being charged and perhaps only as a result of compelling evidence. There is little guarantee that there will be a successful prosecution in this one matter. The remainder of the cases has long gone cold with very little prospect of being resuscitated.
This calamitous state of affairs is replicated in every other sector of the police force’s crime fight as is evident from the daily rash of robberies, shootings and calumny. The police have been found wanting yet the government because of its petty power plays continues to force the populace to endure this mediocrity and incompetence. The list of cases where the police have embarrassed themselves and continue to do so is unending. Sheema Mangar’s killing is a potent case in point which can very well become a rallying cry that the governing party would have a hard time confronting during the election campaign.
Abject failure is even starker at the level of the drug trade and the propensity of the force to majestically capture the spliff bearers while having no clue about the mass cocaine traffickers and drug lords. The container that slipped through Port Georgetown to Jamaica last month with cocaine in its innards is a classic trademark of a bumbling force and an undemanding administration.
It must be that the ruling party believes that the insecurity of the population is not a critical factor in how it intends to apportion its vote at the upcoming election or that it could be perversely used in its favour.
One at this stage can only hope that an incoming administration will see, amid the bloodshed and the runaway crime that has gripped the country, the absolute need for benchmarks upon which top cops should be judged and removed for non-performance. In particular, there has to be a palpable depoliticizing of the police force in favour of the application of professionalism and results-oriented performance. Professor Deosaran has hit the right note and we hope this can be an example that can become the practice for our Police Service Commission once the relevant reforms are agreed.
Hopefully the presidential candidates will put the security issue front and centre of the upcoming campaign.
