Dear Editor,
Many who contribute to the rich discourse and interaction which your column facilitates, are not quite as adept with the cultural nuances of law enforcement organizations as my dear friend Mr Robert Gates (‘Did not claim to be able to do the work of police’ SN, 26.9.07) and Mr Berkeley Van Bowen (‘Comment could exacerbate morale problem in the police force’ SN, 27.9.07), just to name two. Police forces worldwide consider criminal investigation a sacrosanct area, and are not readily mindful of much cooperation with outside organizations for fear of compromise. While there has been a shift towards the police working with private security agencies, those cooperative efforts are governed by parameters which took time to develop. The Guyana Police Force is in a state of transition and will need time to work out the modalities of cooperative efforts between itself and private bodies and individuals with related interests. This answers Mr Gates’s question.
In response to Mr Berkeley Van Bowen, No Sir! An admission by the Minister of Home Affairs or the Commissioner of Police that the police is at present incapable of addressing crime, will do no harm to the minister or the constituencies which he represents. At some particular time in a country’s history the security force is challenged to find innovative means to address crime, hence an admission by the Minister of Home Affairs that the currently constituted crime fighting mechanisms of the police are inadequate, does not in any way imply a weakness of character or incompetence, and should not be construed as such; rather what it does imply is that those persons possess the professionalism and decency to acknowledge the apparent weaknesses of their institutions, which is the first step in the SWOT analysis.
Many heads of state and commissioners of police have acknowledged this at some point in time, which is more often than not followed by improvements. The minister’s admission would be a help rather than a hindrance. In 2005 President Kufuor of Ghana, President Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s Justice Minister Rene Magloire and Public Security chief Luc Joseph and South Africa’s National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi all admitted that their country’s crime-fighting machinery was no longer adequate to control the new levels of crime.
Yours faithfully,
Clairmont Featherstone
