A centuries-old Italian proverb says that “When a fish rots, it starts from its head.” As the Guyana Police Force prepares to embark on the DfID-funded Security Sector Reform Action Plan which was recently approved by the National Assembly, it is a good thing that attention is being paid to training young officers who will eventually occupy positions at the head of the force. Hopefully, the action plan and training courses for officers together can stop the rot.
Launching the police force’s 17th Junior Officers Course last October, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee commended the training to the students indicating that it was they who ought “to have an appreciation of the negative effects [that] crime, drugs and traffic lawlessness could have on our economy and the general welfare of the society.”
On the same occasion, Commissioner of Police Henry Greene expressed his belief that “it is the training that we have been having which has been so vital to our posture in fighting crime.” He attributed the force’s “crime-fighting success” to the priority placed on training.
Regarded as the force’s “core course,” the junior officers’ course is designed to develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values of junior officers to enable them “to manage stations, sub-divisions and, later on, divisions.” The course, conducted in conjunction with the University of Guyana, will also help junior officers to become effective leaders and managers and prepare them for senior leadership.
Of course, much more than short two-month courses will be needed to stop the rot. The force should now move beyond ad hoc seminars to the establishment of a proper police academy. Addressing graduates of the same course last week, Mr Greene did announce plans to “establish a modern training school on the Soesdyke-Linden highway.”
This is the way to go. It is an excellent idea but it must be supported by a new approach to the long-term selection and training of police officers for the ‘gazetted’ ranks from cadet to commissioner.
At present, much too much emphasis is placed on experience and long service rather than intelligence and initiative in the promotion of officers. Most gazetted officers are still selected from the rank and file of the force entry to which is based only on a primary school education.
Solving the type of crimes, which have become prevalent in this country over the past 20 years, however, suggests that a new type of training based on secondary and tertiary education is needed to produce a new type of police officer. Understanding the complexity and implications of trans-national crime, negotiating agreements with neighbouring states and regional organisations, and fulfilling international obligations also require a different professional education.
Modern policing requires a range of new scientific skills to deal with transnational crimes such as narcotics-trafficking, gun-running, people-smuggling and money-laundering. More important, because of the lucrative nature of these types of crime, venal police officers can be enlisted as accessories to criminal enterprises.
Even at the present time, the commissioner of police has promised to conduct an investigation into allegations of the involvement of one of his senior officers in narcotics-trafficking. In the recent past, credible evidence was disclosed about the involvement of another senior officer in the US Embassy immigration racket.
The commissioner should now reconsider re-introducing, on a regular basis, the cadet officer scheme that was successfully employed in the colonial period. At that time, the scheme attracted young talented applicants from outside of the force and also accelerated the advancement of able constables and subordinate officers from inside the force.
The commissioner is correct in pointing out that officer training is vital to crime-fighting. The establishment of the promised proper police academy can measurably contribute to law enforcement by training and placing a fresh crop of officers at the head of the force. That should stop the rot.
