According to the Police Act, Chapter 16:01, the Force shall be employed for “the enforcement and preservation of law and order”. Is that so? If one observes the performance of the Police as a unit, one must consider how inefficiently they will be while spending the G$12.2 billion that is assigned to them by the 2018 Budget. Remember if you consider the size of the Force, the arithmetic works out to just over G$2.4 million (US$12,000) in upkeep cost per officer. For a poor developing country, that is a lot of money with so little results to show for this investment. Just read the latest headline – “Thirty-two gun robberies in 35 days”.
For the Police to really advance we need drastic changes at the very top. At a minimum, we need fresh and independent experts from outside of the Force TEMPORARILY both in the Office of the Commissioner and at other levels in the key operational structure. And why not? We tried “the Ramnarines and the Williams” and both groups failed with an “F” Grade. It is time to try a small team of real professionals from outside the Force who will not pander to the political class.
Why not a small team from the Commonwealth of Nations to head the Police for a short stint over two years to lead the reform, recognising that overwhelmingly the top echelon of the Police have major performance issues? That small team will be tasked with reviewing all operational policies, designing modifications to the training systems and chartering a cultural upgrade in the Force. But for any of this to be successful, we must change the way we recruit and care for the human resources in the force.
As a start rather than giving Ministers a 50 per cent increase, giving all 6000 officers a 20 per cent bump in their salary with the clear caveat that they all will be measured by new performance metrics will go a far way. If they fail to score an average grade, then they shall be demoted with a transition plan out of the Force if the poor performance continues. Can you imagine robbery victims have to wait for two hours for Police to come to their rescue?
Then we must focus our recruitment regionally. All junior officers up to Inspectors should be given a choice to work close to their home (Berbicians will be given a choice to work in Berbice; Lindeners will be given a chance to work in Region 10, Lethem residents in Rupununi and so on) and why not? That way you will be able to influence a greater regional, ethnic, cultural, religion, and gender balance in the force.
When I raised this concern with Minister Ramjattan in Washington, DC he said that it could not work because the Guyana Police is a national force like the FBI. But he is very wrong. The USA and Guyana have different societal challenges. In Guyana, the centralised system acts as a tool of marginalisation for young people in rural and hinterland areas who are willing to join up, but are not prepared to leave their young wives for long periods of time. The consequences can be to their matrimonial detriment. Would Mr Ramjattan relocate for a long time from his family? So, why would he ask so callously for the same from ordinary potential constables?
Over the entire history of the Police, there was a culture where senior officers were more obsessed with what their political boss wants rather than what the law demands. Let us reflect on the Presidential Guard Service. When the PPP left office it was charging the State some G$244 million to secure the President and the Prime Minister. Today, not even three years after, the State is being asked to fund the same operations to the tune of G$468 million (almost double) to secure these top two persons. Clear evidence that we have a pageantry President and Prime Minister in 2018 who, with their 8-10 car motorcade are a clear burden on the taxpayers. It is just scandalous how selfish these people are; all it will take to settle the severance benefits of the cane cutters at Wales is G$300 million and they do not have that, but they have G$468 million annual for the siren rides. Why did the Commissioner /Commissioner (ag) not object?
