IT is the right of every head of state, in effect, the commander-in-chief, to insist upon the highest standards of his security forces, especially those persons that are the nominal heads.

This right, and its concomitant insistence have to be understood against the background of the head of state, being morally responsible, by way of being elected with a mandate from the people and which in fact is inherent in the understanding, that the safe keeping of the state is assured in the hands of service leaders who are of impeccable character.

It is an insistence that President David Granger re-emphasised after he had sworn in members of the recently appointed Police Service Commission, along with its chairman. In delivering his post-swearing-in remarks, he spoke about an “unbribable” top cop, who must also be able to oversee the security sector reform (SSR).

Given the troubling revelations of the findings of the Justice Trotman Commission of Inquiry into the Lindo Creek Massacre, which gave insight into the Guyana Police Force (GPF), coupled with the findings of the Paul Slowe Commission of Inquiry into allegations of a plot to assassinate the President, it is evident that the leadership of the police force has lost its way. One can therefore appreciate the President’s position on this very important security appointment.

No leadership of a police force must be guided or influenced by considerations other than those of the highest ethical standards and professionalism that are demanded for the proper discharge of its functions. Neither should there be political influence of any kind, except the making of policy that is solely for the maintenance and upkeep of its daily professional operations. In fact, observers would notice that the current government is allowing its executive officers and heads of key state departments to manage independently. It is an imperative for building professional capacity in any democratic state.

That goes for the management of the GPF as well; a departure from the marked intrusions of the former government, a fact that had been publicly stated unambiguously by two former commissioners of police.

It cannot be over emphasised as in other editorial pieces on the GPF, the quality of leadership of any police force determines the following: first, its standard of discipline, since the latter influences the level of conduct which is so important for the proper adherence to the standard operating procedures for successful outcomes of daily security engagements; second, it is seminal, for it gives the cue for the esprit de corps, thereby setting the pace for the other subordinate officers to follow. This example is going to filter down to the body of junior ranks who will understand that their daily roles and conduct have to be performed and conform to the force’s disciplinary code and work ethic.

Any police force, in which a collective of its top brass is engaged in illegal activities, is a recipe for non-performance, gradual degrading of respect from the bottom, and eventual indiscipline among the ranks, thereby compromising operations. This cannot inspire confidence from the public either, since the latter will, with the passage of time, lose confidence in the force’s ability to maintain order, much less to ensure citizens’ safety.
As a nation, those are the kinds of experience that had been at play, at some points of the police force’s sojourn, during the over 23 years of the PPP/C government. It has not done the image of the GPF any good, thus becoming necessary since 2015, for the coalition government to effect a raft of measures for a total and complete overhaul of the force’s entire structure, beginning with the naming of a new commissioner of police, four deputies, and the implementation of the all-important Security Sector Reform (SSR), which has already begun.

Bribes are a dirty fly in the ointment of any state security officer at any level of a law- enforcement agency, since its purpose is to corrupt investigations, with the aim of perverting the course of justice. But it is even gravest, when it resides at the topmost strata, for the negative message that it sends to the rest of the ranks. No police force must be saddled with such a leadership.

It is certain that whatever appointments will come, and long overdue pending disciplinary measures taken, will be done with the best interests of the GPF and nation in mind. It will not be about “settling scores’’ with any officer(s), or seeking to “undermine morale,’’ as the leader of the parliamentary opposition constantly seeks to mislead about an agency, that sunk to all-time lows during his tenure as head of state and commander-in-chief.

It is about returning a police force to its once halcyon days, where the citizens can once more be proud of its leadership, fit and proper, because of its integrity.