In the shadowland of unsolved murders, unexplained disappearances and uninvestigated police killings, the recent remarks of Police Commissioner Mr Henry Greene cast little light and held out scant hope for the bereft families of the victims. How much brighter now are the prospects that rigorous controls will be imposed on the use of lethal force by policemen? How much more likely are members of the force to be punished if found culpable of having fired their weapons unwarrantedly?

Mr Greene claims that every officer knows when to fire on a citizen and that the procedures for so doing “are almost like memory verses to policemen.” But, in the heat of operations, there could be memory lapses with fatal results. Innocent persons might be shot and killed. Children could be injured in the crossfire. Mistakes are often made.

Few will find fault with the commissioner’s gnomic warning that members of the force will “fight fire with fire” if their lives and those of others are threatened. The public understands, though, that it ought not to be the intention of the police to use excessive force when making arrests except in cases where the persons being arrested are excessively aggressive. The public reaction when the police kill a suspect has frequently been that, although death is regrettable, the use of lethal force is understandable if it saves the lives of others.

Despite what the commissioner might think, however, competent policing is not necessarily a question of “When the police fail to take effective action, they face criticism