The August 31, 2018 swearing in of Assistant Commissioner Leslie James as the country’s new Commissioner of Police had come after months of speculation over who would be President David Granger’s pick to replace the outgoing Commissioner Seelall Persaud whose exit from the position had come in the wake of questions that had been raised over investigations into an alleged plot to assassinate the Head of State. What had also made Persaud’s likely replacement a matter of intense public interest was the long-held view that the primary failing of the Force had been, largely though not exclusive, a function of leadership deficiencies. That has long been a criticism of the Force, so that it seemed that the likely pick would be the one whom, in President Granger’s view, had the most eye-catching leadership qualities.
The widespread public ‘betting’ – which, all too frequently, is based on sketchy and unreliable criteria – did not particularly fancy Assistant Commissioner Leslie James, so that when it was reported in the Stabroek News on August 30 that another Assistant Commissioner, Nigel Hoppie, was the President’s likely pick, few people appeared unduly surprised. The President had, days earlier, set out his own critical criteria for occupancy of the position. He wanted, he said, an “unbribable” Commissioner, that pronouncement sending a clear message that there were official concerns at the highest level in the land (to go along with even more widespread public concerns) about corruption in the Force.
All of this had been taking place against a backdrop of a fair degree of drama preceding the eventual choice of Commissioner. Against the backdrop of the widely expressed concerns over leadership issues in the Force it appears that a decision had been made that the eight most senior officers would be put through a series of ‘tests’ that would help in determining who would lead the GPF, going forward. James, along with Lyndon Alves, Paul Williams, Nigel Hoppie, Clifton Hicken and Marlon Chapman, all Assistant Commissioners, along with the only female in the leadership lineup, Assistant Commissioner Maxine Graham, were considered to be ‘in the running,’ so to speak, for the position. The other applicant, and the ranking police officer, Assistant Commissioner David Ramnarine, who, at the time was acting as Commissioner following the retirement of Persaud, was also a candidate for the Commissioner’s job. His failure to get the job or even to secure promotion to the rank of Deputy Commissioner came as a major shock in some quarters and was almost certainly responsible for his subsequent early retirement from the Force.
Maxine Graham
The President’s eventual pick had also come as a surprise to others who had already made their respective picks, the most prominent of those being one-time Crime Chief Paul Williams who, eventually, was assigned to take responsibility for administration.
If, however, the coalition has eventually been able to settle the issue of the leadership of the Force, at least for the next few years, the matter of the quality of the service which it provides remains a burning issue remaining ‘up in the air,’ so to speak.
Last October, during his first major media encounter James had given an undertaking that that the Force was in the process of “forging” a plan” for what he described as a “much reformed Police Force.” He asked for five months for that plan to materialise. It would, he said, have centred around three areas, human resource management, training and infrastructure.
With five months having come and gone there has been no comprehensive feedback from the Commissioner on his promises
If it was perfectly understandable that Commissioner James would have wanted to give definitive notice of his intention to have the Force ‘raise its game’ under his leadership, the question arises as to whether, during his October 2018 media briefing, he may not have over-reached himself. His assurances had ranged from “remodeled” and “re-commissioned” police stations in various parts of the country, forensic upgrades, enhancement in marine capabilities, improved mobile and foot patrols and response time and down, the road an Aviation Unit. The GPF’s training mechanisms, James had also said, were also in line for reform.
With such an elaborate list of undertakings it would have been both appropriate and reassuring for the Com-missioner to provide the public with a check list of what has been accomplished, what remains to be done and the likely time lines for completion.
Corruption too had been addressed in the Commissioner’s October media briefing, a weakness which he had said “must be something of the past.” Ironically, the Force’s recent official response to corruption among traffic ranks has been that the accusers must “bring the evidence” and that “where there are no givers there can be no takers.”
With no comprehensive statistical data available with which to measure the
improvement or otherwise of the performance of the Force under its new leadership, it would be difficult to gauge the performance of the GPF’s new leadership team during its almost nine months in office. On the whole robberies of one sort or another still occur with monotonous regularity, many of these attended by the brutalisation of the victims.
In August last year, even as he was in the throes of naming a new Commissioner of Police, President Granger had himself expressed a measure of exasperation with the performance of the Force, a subject on which he had written extensively prior to assuming the presidency. Not by accident, one suspects, he had listed “Integrity, intelligence and impartiality” as critical to his own idea as to the type of Police Commissioner the country needs. In August he had also said that he was in search of a Police Commissioner “who is committed to carrying out the programme of security sector reform, who has the initiative and who can generate public trust.” It may, perhaps be too early to pronounce on whether or not his pick meets those criteria but sooner rather than later he will have to do so.
