At the end of a week’s worth of wordplay at the 24th annual conference of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police, Barbados Commissioner of Police and current President of the Association Darwin Dottin dealt directly with the philosophy of law enforcement in the region. He declared plainly that “As police organisations, we are not fighting a war against our citizens. Even though they are provoked, in most cases police officers are working in a conflictual position…we think that their training is as such that they would be able to deal with those persons with whom they come into contact in a respectful manner.”

Dottin’s remarks seemed to point to the whole purpose of public safety and to the direction that police reform should take. His words had to be understood in the context of the different approaches to policing taken by the Caribbean Community’s Assistant Secretary-General Dr Edward Greene, on the one hand, and President Bharrat Jagdeo on the other, at the same conference.

Greene told the conference that “the key to sustainable programmes rests with the construction and implementation of crime prevention strategies” and advocated an alliance between the police and research centres that provide analyses of trends and guidelines for behaviour change. He felt that the association could contribute greatly by establishing protocols and standards that combined “appropriate punishment with a formula for rehabilitation of those who commit crimes and reintegrating them into society as worthwhile citizens.”

He then quoted part of a Stabroek News editorial which, he said, articulated what needed to be done in police reform: “The brute-force tactic of sending out hunting parties to shoot bandits has not eradicated those transnational crimes which keep pumping guns, drugs, dirty money and criminal violence into the country.  Systematic police reform − that emphasises crime intelligence and human security − is necessary if the country is to enjoy a sustained era of public safety and economic stability.”

In what sounded like a jejune gibe aimed at reducing Greene’s proposition to public ridicule, President Jagdeo pronounced that “the use of brute force” was justified because of the escalation of violent crime, in which AK-47s are being used. He declaimed, “…when you have psychopaths slaughtering people, then you need brute force. When you have someone shooting at you with AK-47s you need to send out the brute force AK-47s to get back at them. You can’t go there and smile and shake hands and negotiate, welcome them to the fold; they are not going to come.”

If this intended as a case of reductio ad absurdum, its effect was the opposite. There had been no suggestion that forceful measures should not be employed against violent criminals. It was therefore unhelpful to deride, discredit and dismiss thoughtful, long-term solutions to dealing with criminal violence at such an international public security forum. Dottin was at pains to point out that he was not advocating “soft policing” because, in some cases, “firm policing” was required. The lesson that was to be learnt from the Caribbean experience was the need for “social interventions” in communities that were spawning gangs and criminal behaviour.

Gang violence is a major challenge to police forces across the region and a promising way to understand and prevent that gang violence was by problem-oriented policing. To do so successfully, studies had to be conducted and risk factors identified.

In the final analysis, according to Dottin, Caribbean commissioners and their police forces have to change the manner in which they currently confront crime. They ought to recognise that, if they continue to use force, the criminals would also continue to use force. After all, “we are not fighting a war against our citizens.”