Dear Editor,
Our generation of the 1930s would walk past the Alberttown Police Station, located as is now at Fourth and Albert Streets, on the way to schools in Queenstown – Moravian and Roman Catholic Primaries. Those of us living in the neighbourhood could observe daily groups of policemen from that station running past early every morning in white athletic outfits. Being six feet tall was a recruiting requirement in those days.
In the 1940s, while attending secondary schools we were mesmerised by the brilliant display of athleticism at the annual Police Sports – formally known as Gymkhana – at the Eve Leary ground. There was also the expertly controlled ‘gyrations’, if you will, of the Mounted Police (Horse-Guards to us). Some of us got nearer to the Police when our team played against them in Second Division (Wight Cup) Cricket. I distinctly remember their outstanding middle-distance runner hitting me for four consecutive sixes in one over, each ball crossing no more than about four feet above the same boundary.
But perhaps the more cheering experiences were the concerts to which my father escorted me at the Town (City) Hall – to listen to renditions of the Police Male Voice Choir, formed by then Warrant Officer (Inspector) James Phoenix. The Choir went on to win awards across the Caribbean, and also represented Guyana at Expo 1967 in Toronto, Canada. It was about that time too that the Guyana Police Band, conducted by Bandmaster Small, along with the Christ Church Choir, revived my confidence that Christmas season in performing an anthem which my father had frequently claimed had been sung in St. George’s Cathedral several times earlier. Unfortunately, Bandmaster Small died before honouring his promise to upgrade the score.
More relevantly, from an organisational training and developmental perspective, it is difficult to recall exactly when the Police Cadet Scheme was instituted; but one recalls some of the outstanding successes, after coordinated training overseas – such leadership exhibited in names like Glasgow, Lewis, McLean, Roberts, who were also sportsmen of national status – emerging from St. Stanislaus and Queen’s Colleges. Now one is puzzled that such a creative developmental programme seems to have been constricted to a ‘rank’ – ascribed as ‘Cadet Officer’.
But the latter is one small reason why those who are better informed are dumbfounded by the profound illogic obtaining in the recent exercise of hundreds of promotions in the current stressed-out Police Force. Related experts have already questioned the ‘illegality’ of the intervention. Certainly experienced management practitioners would regard the process as fundamentally illogical, if not also embarrassing – to this nation. For there needs to be a most comprehensive explanation of the promotional requirements that obtain within any applicable job hierarchy, i.e.
i) Necessary qualifications – literacy standards
ii) Relevant training
iii) Applicable experience
iv) Statutory probationary/acting periodicities
v) Records of formal performance assessments by an appropriately appointed panel that could be subject to audit – in this instance by a relevant professional (CARICOM) Team, if not by Civil Society.
For too many the latest programme of promotions could only be seen, even by the most charitable observer, as a profound subversion of morality, of the principle of trust in the system, and the consequent lack of credibility in the individual players involved, leading to the compromise of productivity, and of achievement of the very goals conjured up by the decision-makers.
There will be a hard time convincing victims, witnesses alike, as well as distant observers, that the police themselves have not been ‘framed’ – into an environment of incompetence that might hark back to haunt the decision-makers. The message is pellucidly clear to a population of local and foreign observers. How can it be allowed to squander the effective integrity of this component of our justice system, while the more educated judiciary long awaits confirmation of its status, along with acknowledgement of the need for its more capable jurisdiction to be extended? The CCJ must wonder about this illusion of impartial governance.
Sincerely,
(Name and Address Provided)
