THEdiscussion about crime and criminal activity has been taken into the usual shallows of political blame games. Truth be told, all we have are meaningless words and empty ideas. It has always been so, and so it remains for now. In Guyana, the cost of living has far outstripped salaries. People are so underpaid that we have a large category of citizens who are the working poor. Our well-meaning leaders, past and current, know only in abstract ways about the great hardship that comes with the struggle to put bread on the tables of families. This grind goes for our teachers, nurses and doctors in the public system, harvesters, and our law-enforcement professionals. It goes for this writer too and there is nothing abstract about no roof and no food.
We must find a way that allows salaries to keep pace with the cost of living, plus some more for savings. The question that we are faced with is how shall we pay for this? The equally vital question is what happens if we do not bring salaries up to realistic standards?
Some of the answers reside in implementable policies, especially those involving innovative energy, job- creation, and industrial enterprises. We know that there is a serious increase in criminal activity. We also know that our policemen and women are the subject of much negative criticism from all quarters. Some of this negativity is justified, but it is too often based on gossip and innuendo and political motivation. Good law- enforcement officers become painted nastily with the same worn brush, but beyond sensational headlines, we have not designed ways to assess silent crimes: rape inside forced marriages; the buying and selling of women under the guise of this or that religion; the disease of secrecy surrounding licensed rape, and so on.
Our conviction must be that law enforcement is meant to serve and protect the citizens of this nation from foreign and domestic enemies and that no one is above the law. Therefore, for a start we recommend an immediate scientific review of salaries and benefits to all law enforcement personnel; design and implement contemporary but locally applicable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess enforcement personnel; all enforcement and protection agencies must be free of political interference and create a more scientific, psychological aptitude test for new recruits.
At this point, we have the CXC requirements, and we depend on the intuition of training officers who interview potential recruits. Senior police trainers and a clinical psychologist will interview, choose, and train. The training needs to be much more than skill at arms, drills, vehicular training, etc. We do have the “classroom aspect” and much of this is done well. But we must expand our training, without taking away from the normal training and without adding time to the training regimen.
We can have intense sessions on topics such as oral communication and mannerly conduct; written communication; fundamentals of law; first responder training; conflict resolution and domestic violence; information technology; dealing with survivors of suicide; managing at-risk youth; ethics and ethical conduct, and so on. Similar but upgraded training sessions must be sponsored for active ranks. These could be coordinated with divisional and sub-divisional commanders in a rotational manner in order that there is minimal job-disruption. The same kind of training sessions can be conducted simultaneously for the Guyana Defence Force, Community Policing Groups and the Neighbourhood Police. Additionally, the administration should begin a thorough and objective review of the Judicial System to make it more responsive, responsible, and efficient. Initiate a thorough review of the Prison System and Fire Service to make them responsive through modern techniques. Special attention must also be given to the training of law-enforcement officers for Marine Policing and Immigration and Customs and the creation of a special victims unit dedicated to crimes of a sexual nature, including child abuse and molestation, rape, domestic violence and rape, human trafficking, and suicide/self-harmers. If only we can implement some of these recommendations there is no doubt that we would be well on our way to arresting the crime problem here, while bringing much needed assurance and security to a wary citizenry.