Kick down the door police tactics will antagonise citizens

Dear Editor,

I will be grateful if the Minister of Home Affairs, the Commissioner of Police or the crime chief can say under what conditions, authority or circumstances are the members of the Guyana Police Force authorised to kick down the doors of citizens’ apartments to gain entry. I ask this because some of the methods and strategy presently used by members of the force will definitely create more criminals.

The police alone cannot fight crime effectively. It is going to take the help and cooperation of citizens in tandem with the work of the police force to combat crimes and criminals in our society. The public at large has already lost some confidence in the force and with the unwanted and unprofessional ‘kick down the door’ method being employed by the police any further confidence will eventually disappear.

It is my duty as a citizen of this country to give full support to the police in their efforts to fight crime and criminal activities. However, I will only do so if there is professionalism in the way the police go about fighting crime. Information gathering, strategic planning, timely and precise execution of these plans, dealing with the public in a positive way, even having spies and detectives associating with citizens so as to gather vital information are important requirements for effective crime fighting. To kick open citizens’ doors at 04:00 am hoping to find bandits and criminals sound asleep behind those doors is very poor thinking and crime fighting tactics because only vagrants sleep soundly at that time of the morning, bandits and criminals don’t. It is therefore imperative for the police to rethink their modus operandi and come up with a more professional way of crime fighting.

We have heard that bandits posing as police officers and wearing police outfits gain entry to people’s homes, robbing, beating and terrifying the occupants. With this in mind it is ever so important that proper identification of persons wanting to enter our homes be made. Quite recently an incident occurred where the police kicked open doors of a few apartments at about 4:00 am to gain entry. One of those apartments housed a young mother and her two nursery-aged daughters. According to her she was awoken by the knocking on her door, and when she asked who it was a voice replied ‘police’.

She then asked ‘what can I do for you’? Without saying another word the door was kicked open and three men wearing bullet proof vests armed with long guns entered her apartment and began searching. They did not show or produce any form of identification nor did they state who or what they were searching for. Not finding anything they proceeded to three other apartments and did the same thing. One of the other occupants said after she heard the voice calling out police she tried to get fully dressed as she was half naked but before she could have done that the door was kicked opened and the policemen entered. How embarrassing it was for that woman.

I know persons who have been affected, robbed or beaten by criminals might agree with the police method, but I think such persons will do so from hurt, frustration and anger. What those persons have to realise is that two wrongs cannot make a right. Justice is what we want but not at the expense of innocent people. In other words we are now at a point where police, criminals and bandits are making the lives of innocent citizens miserable and uncomfortable.

I am therefore calling on the authorities to put some kind of restraint on these policemen before the situation spirals out of control. Remember the motto of the force is ‘serve and protect’ not ‘serve and disrespect’.

Yours faithfully,

R Hakim