In September this year, Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell called on citizens to wage war with criminals. “We have to take back our communities”, he said, emphasising vigilance across the board but seemingly altogether discounting the increasing disregard for the law which pervades this country, our capacity for social violence and the core duty of the force to control crime.
Our communities continue to be overwhelmed by crime and violence – from break-ins and robberies to domestic violence, sexual assaults and murders. Criminals invade our homes and demand our earnings at gunpoint; they visit violence upon our lives and on occasion the horrors of rape and murder. For a growing number of Guyanese the situation is the same: we no longer feel safe.
In short, we are already at war and have been for a long time. But the citizenry is under siege and in the absence of long-delayed police reforms one cannot help but feel that the government and the police have failed in their roles as the dominant authority and protector of our rights and property. Therefore, what the new Commissioner should have said back in September is this: ‘We have failed but we will fix this, we will reform and rebuild your confidence in us, and we will make our communities safe again.’
Community-based strategies are crucial in policing crime, especially in this current climate of soaring murders and robberies but we are at a crucial period when effective policing is needed and less appeals to a public that is under siege and a public that already shows disregard for the law.
The crime problem here is evidence of a breakdown of law and order as are the issues of vigilante justice and extra-judicial killings. Even more troubling is that we have a situation where the nation’s law enforcers are widely perceived as lawbreakers.
Going by media reports earlier this year, citizens in some of our communities have taken on the role of defenders of law and order; arresting, prosecuting and passing judgement on suspected criminals. While self-defence of person and property is lawful, these street trials are not. They are engendering mob law and promoting vigilantism, which in sum work to undermine respect for the rule of law.
No doubt having considered the serious implications of this, the Ministry of Home Affairs released a statement in May this year condemning vigilante killings after two suspected thieves were beaten to death. The ministry’s statement warned persons who choose to take the law into their own hands that when found, they will be dealt with to the full extent of the law.
Taking this into account, the Commissioner was being irresponsible when he called to us to wage war with criminals. In fact, he has an obligation to caution against excessive force, vigilantism, and to stress the importance of law and order in our society. And when he encourages licensed firearm holders to take up greater responsibilities in our communities, he is also obligated to caution against mass executions and showing contempt for human life.
It would have been refreshing to hear him speak of the core duty of the force he leads and of his own efforts to bridge the gap between the force, civil society and our communities.
First, this country needs a professional police force that works in the interest of the public and upholds its core duty of controlling crime in our country. A force that operates within the rule of law, demonstrates better investigative techniques and networks with citizens. We need a more responsive force, not the force that responds to reports with excuses about the availability of vehicles, redirects calls to stations closer to crime scenes and so on.
Too often, the criminals in our communities somehow manage to roll in and out undetected and while many community policing groups are functioning they cannot replace the police. They cannot enforce the law and or take the law into their own hands. It is important that we communicate this and again, guard against a rise in vigilantism.
The debate on the future of policing here is rich with stakeholder input on a number of issues, such as police corruption, police response to crime and violence, community policing, and excessive force. Significantly, with the selection of 10 civilians to oversee the implementation of the police force’s strategic plan, we now have civilian oversight of the operations of the force and perhaps a new opportunity for a closer working relationship with civil society.
Second, our Commissioner has a responsibility to look at the ways in which the police could build a culture that is sensitive to and respectful of the public. It is also important that he includes legitimacy and democracy in the nature of our policing, and that he works to ensure the public is not alienated from the police. These are reasonable expectations and we are looking to him for a new kind of leadership.
Beginning with the crime fighting efforts of the force, he needs to work on new strategies and ensure that the current tactics are strengthened. While increased patrols, rapid response to calls for service and robust investigation of crimes have been consistently identified in research as important to controlling crime, new studies have focused on the role of the police in diagnosing and managing problems in the community that enable a delinquent culture. This level of interest fosters closer relations with the community.
Our relationship with the police should not be reduced to making contact only in times of crisis. We need to build a relationship beyond the 911 hotline; citizens should know the police officers who are assigned to patrol their communities. This means that we need more police patrols and not necessarily mobile patrols – foot patrols also communicate police presence in our communities.
Encouraging ranks to go into communities and interact with citizens, to knock on doors and ask about their welfare simply to reach out could build important bridges and improve police-community relations, defusing the antagonistic relations that currently prevail. But there is another side of policing that many in our poorer communities often complain about- a police force that is more intrusive than familiar. These community narratives range from regular house raids to stigmatisation. This kind of police work is counter-productive and only serves to alienate these communities.
Indeed, citizens need to be more vigilant but the Commissioner cannot encourage us to wage war with criminals. As observed, we are at war, thus he should offer to strengthen the self-defence capacities of our neighbourhoods. So yes Mr Brumell we need to fight back, but we are also counting on you to fight back against the current police culture of insensitivity and ineffectiveness, and facilitate the necessary changes so that citizens can learn to trust the police again.
Have a question or comment? Connect with Iana Seales at about.me/iseales