Police officers should be chosen from among those who have attained higher levels of education

Dear Editor, I am pleased to see the issue of police abuse attracting the attention of some outstanding Guyanese, some of whom I have never met, but I am familiar with their contributions to various matters that should be of concern to Guyanese. While I consider relevant many of the causes suggested for a rise in the police resorting to, what many consider, unwarranted use of force in their interactions with citizens, I think we often overlook the main contributing factor for this behaviour. For me these are: a) the pool from which we draw our policemen, b) a misguided faith in the magic of training, c) the absence of action by the administration to respond intelligently to the challenges created by the first contributing factor.

Police recruitment has not been able to attract our brighter young citizens to its rank. Indeed, it is most likely that the vast majority of our junior policemen/women do not have passes in four subjects at CXC at a single sitting. Further, most of these underachievers come from our poor communities. Communities in which the resort to fist or weapons to settle disputes prevail. As recruits, it is this culture that they bring to the police academy.

Unfortunately, the training offered at the police academy, has too often failed at providing the nation with officers committed to ethical behaviour. The training fails to overcome the culture recruits bring from the harsh communities they are a part of. At police academies the recruit is taught that the amount of force used must be proportionate to the level of the threat. The communities from which most recruits are drawn teach them to hit where it causes the most damage, incapacitate your opponent, make sure he can’t hurt you in the future.

I am quite aware that previous writers have commented on this seeming ineffectiveness of the training offered recruits, and seem to suggest that with the ‘right’ training the problem will be eliminated. With our recruits being drawn from among the lower achievers academically, getting the training ‘right’ will be rather difficult, indeed even unlikely to achieve.

Dr. Maria Haberfeld (Doctorate in Criminal Justice) makes two points on why police officers should be chosen from among those who have attained higher levels of education. She notes: (a) Education gives one a certain perspective on life and sometimes demystifies certain biases and concepts or preconceived notions about people, situations, and how to handle situations. (2) One can have the best training, but if you offer it to the wrong people you’re not achieving anything.

Further she notes that when young people pursue higher education they enter the work force a bit later, than the average recruit. When one is so young, these couple of years are critical for one’s emotional development and decision making processes. She holds age 25 as the appropriate minimum age for recruits.

It is informative to note that in the USA the states with the highest rates of police killing are New Mexico, the District of Columbia and Oklahoma. What these states have in common is they ask that citizens desirous of becoming members of the state police department be holders of at least a high school diploma or GED. Another study in 2014 found that police officers with a college education are less likely to resort to force (56% of the time), as against their colleagues who never attended college who resorted to crime 68% of the time. In his/her interaction with the public the police rank is the only person with the authority to use force as he deems necessary. Today with being armed with a deadly weapon being a feature of policing, the need for intelligent officers becomes absolutely essential. Sometimes we seem to overlook the immense responsibility we place on a young man who has not successfully completed secondary school, when we give him a gun and the authority to, stop, confront and detain citizens . To expect an absence of excesses under such conditions would be foolish.

In Guyana police culture seems to focus on end and not so much means. The aim is to prevent the crime, apprehend the suspect, concern for doing these things with strict adherence to legal means seem of little importance. To make matters worse, senior police officers, by their utterances, sometimes give verbal support to police bad behaviour.

The Kaieteur News of 7th February 2013 ( the Stabroek News reported much the same in its edition of 8th February 2013) reported on the then Commissioner of Police – Leroy Brummel’s comments in response to questions surrounding the police killing of three suspects. Among his responses, he is quoted as saying “Why do we have to answer all these questions ……..” and “You should be glad that we have three less now and two firearms less on the road.” Such statements from his superiors must be sweet music to the ears of some young recruits. So, in the wake of these realities confronting the police service, what do we do?

Since we will have to persist with the present calibre of police for the foreseeable future, the question then becomes how can we organize ourselves for getting the best out of our police?

First, (if we no longer do) we could return to the practice of certain public service jobs attracting incentive payments which are paid to workers who have qualifications above what is demanded for entry into the job. For example on leaving school I worked in the Yellow Fever Control Department of the Ministry of Health, and was given an incentive pay for subjects passed at the General Certificate Examination (GEC). Offering police officers incentive payment for passes in five or more subjects at CXC at one sitting, might attract a higher level of recruits.

Secondly, I think we should move to a place where (as it is in the USA), the police tend to work in couples. If indeed; as I am so often told; the vast majority of policemen are good and virtuous, but “it is a small minority that give the police a bad name,” then we must pair our young police officers, just out of training school, with one of these many “good cops.” This will place a check on any tendency to be disrespectful and abusive to citizens. Further, hopefully, the young officer, with time and regular exposure to good policing, will also become a model cop and able to serve as a mentor to others coming out of training school after him. These actions I see as a good start at addressing this problem of police abuse. Yours faithfully, Claudius Prince