Dear Editor
Gone are the days when a policeman could rely on physical brawn to maintain the peace and his political connections to keep the job. The days of handing a policeman a gun and a badge and putting him on a beat are long gone. He needs to be trained and given the necessary tools to cope with the challenges of change.
Sewell (2000) notes,” According to some futurists, changes in society occur in several major areas, directly affecting law enforcement. These include changes in society itself, in technology, in the economy and the environment, as well as political changes.” This may be applicable to the Guyana Police Force.
An attempt is being made to re-form the GPF. It is all about change. Change involves the alteration of attitudes and work behaviour as individuals, as team members and as members of the department. Change can occur in one or two ways: changing individuals or organization structure, its goals and objectives. Most times reforms fail because the real emphasis is placed on organizational change while the individuals are left untouched. This process concentrates on the agents of change while the victims of change are neglected. They are not given the tools to cope with the change. The people skills to enable them to adapt or cope with the change are not addressed. The main focus is on technical skills and not people skills. Technical skills used to be the most important; however, now and in the years ahead people skills are the most important.
Woodward and Buchholz (1987) explain it this way:
One way to visualize this tactical, people-oriented approach is with a bicycle. The two wheels of a bicycle have different purposes. The back wheel powers the bike; the front wheel steers it. Extending this analogy to an organization, the ‘back-wheel’ skills are technical and organizational skills needed for the organization to function. ‘Front-wheel’ skills are interpersonal ‘people management’ skills. Corporations tend to rely on their back wheel, that is their technical skills. Typically, when change comes, the response of the organization is primarily a back-wheel response ‒ do what we know best. But the real need is front-wheel skills, that is helping people understand and adapt to the changing environment .
Wayne W Benette and Karen M Hess in their book Management and Supervision in Law Enforcement suggest, “law enforcement managers must possess a combination of technical skills and people skills to successfully guide their department through the new millennium.”
Leaders must pay attention to change in the environment. Scanning of the environment, both internal and external; analyzing; responding; and assessing are sine qua non. Adapt or perish. Change is inevitable. View it as opportunity.
Yours faithfully
Clinton Conway
