Next Monday Deputy Commissioner of Police Winston Felix is to be sworn in as the new Commissioner of Police. As far as transitions go, this is an important one. The tenure of the incumbent Mr Floyd McDonald has been blighted, first, by the continuing scourge of extra-judicial killings and police brutality, then by the startling and savage crime onslaught engineered by the February 23 escapees and their recruits and, finally, the reign of the death squads. It has not been a happy period and while the nation thanks Mr McDonald for his service it can't but heave a sigh of relief in the hope that his successor will be able to restore a semblance of order, justice and sanity to policing.
The problems that have plagued policing didn't begin under Mr McDonald. They were inherited from his predecessors and had their origins in decades of political, economic and social decay. The breakdown in the standards of policing became a metaphor for the rest of the disintegrating society and remains so.
While the furore over the death squad allegations will continue to fester and distract from the work at hand, it is important that the government, the incoming commissioner and the society as a whole focus on the important task ahead.
Reform is desperately needed at all levels of the force together with retooling and invigoration. This is primarily a task for the government. In the very early stages of their violent campaign, the February 23 escapees exposed the embarrassing shortcomings of the police force in terms of manpower, intelligence and intelligence gathering capabilities and material. These deficiencies will have to be addressed through generous government outlays. Already, over the last two years or so, the mobility and firepower of the force have been boosted. Other promises such as the establishment of a SWAT team, an air wing and the purchase of armoured cars have not been requited. River craft are also needed to boost the all-surface capacity of the force.
Aside from this, the skills level of the average policeman and woman and their abilities to gather intelligence need addressing. The various recent external studies of the police force including the Symonds Report have emphasised the need for intelligence-led policing and the absence of this restrained the police force from effectively grappling with the violent challenge mounted by the February 23 escapees. More resources have to be poured into the relevant training and acquisition of skills.
This is also true with respect to the forensic capacity of the force and its prosecutorial skills - essential components in the overall response to crime - but areas where the force is sadly lacking. While the rest of the Caribbean is beginning to move smartly ahead with DNA testing which could have elucidated many local unsolved mysteries going way back to Monica Reece's murder, our force is not moving in this direction because of the cost involved in using such facilities and as a result will remain a second-class investigating force. This issue needs to be seriously looked at. Were any of the escapees to be captured alive, it is debatable whether the police force would have been able to muster sufficient evidence to win a conviction in court once a good lawyer was retained for the defence. With witnesses unlikely to testify as to identity, the police force would hardly have been able to rise to the occasion without quality evidence of which DNA is becoming an increasingly important aspect. Refining the skills of police prosecutors so that they have a fair chance of winning convictions is also crucial. The public has come to accept that in any match ups between certain high-flying attorneys and police prosecutors it is impossible for a conviction to be won.
Another pivotal issue is the susceptibility of the latter day policeman to corruption. From a `raise' to a `food' to ducking testimony or contaminating evidence, the recent failures of the police force owe quite a lot to corrupt influence. It is time that the government looks seriously again at the issue of pay and working conditions of the policemen. If there was ever a doubt as to how crucial and dangerous the work of the police force is we had a full-bodied taste of it over the last two years. The murder of more than 20 police officers by criminals also drove home how deadly their occupation could be. The government must recognise the value of their work by paying much better wages and thereby reduce the temptation of corruption.
One of the primary tasks of the commissioner will be to make a major effort to rebuild the public's confidence in the police force. Mr Felix has an opportunity to draw a solid line under the transgressions that have plagued the force in recent years and to restore professionalism at all levels and policing that has firmness, fairness and decency as its hallmarks. Many people with tips and information are unwilling to go to the police these days because they don't trust the force and believe that they could be compromised because of leaks from the force.
Mr Felix must know that public revulsion of the force stemmed from years of extra-judicial killings, brutality and crude behaviour by Guyana's finest. This caused a dangerous estrangement between the police and the community and when the whole fabric of law and order was threatened by the February 23 escapees, the police got very little support from those communities it had hopelessly alienated. It was a bitter lesson for the police but one that it must take to heart if it is to establish decisive control. The litmus test is the adjoining villages of Buxton/Friendship from where criminal savagery radiated all across the land at the height of the crime wave. The police killing of Shaka Blair was the straw that broke the camel's back and it defined the serious problems the police had with this community. The result was that the police got no help in fighting crime; to the contrary there was widespread support for the criminals because they were seen as exacting revenge against the police. Today, the situation remains more or less the same. While the police may now be able to raid and patrol the village, youth gangs still terrorise the embankment traffic and neighbouring villages because no critical mass of support exists for the police. Mr Felix has to work to reverse this.
Just as important, Mr Felix has to inject a new sense of fair conduct and accountability in the force. No longer must the public be regaled with tales of police killings and violence made worse by force cover-ups and failures to accept mistakes. Mr Felix must have each and every policeman and woman understand that from the date of his appointment as Top Cop a new dispensation will be in force and the police will not be allowed to violate policing norms and get away with it. Mr Felix's tenure must see a concerted effort to wipe out unprofessional behaviour and ensure that no injustice is done to the public either through extra-judicial killings, beatings, the soliciting of bribes or other forms of misconduct. Zero tolerance must be the motto.
As to the society, it must, across the board recognise the signal importance of the force in maintaining law and order and support its efforts 100%. Let us all trust that Mr Felix will revolutionise the way the police force relates to the citizen. We must no longer see policing as a political battlefield where to back the force is seen as supportive of the administration of the day while to oppose it either overtly or covertly is perceived as aiding the opponents of the government. Sooner or later that attitude backfires and the criminal monster eventually turns on its sponsors and supporters.