by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
Recently I was invited by the T&T Police Service (TTPS) to attend a Stakeholders’ Consultation with members of the Executive as the TTPS prepares its strategic plan for 2014-2016 (see my presentation on CCSJ’s website).
A large proportion of T&T’s budget is spent on national security/crime reduction. Are we getting value for money? Although this Consultation was a bit late since we are already into 2014, it’s a good sign as collaboration promotes community policing. TTPS’s Mission statement recognises that the Police Service cannot achieve its goals on its own. It states: “In partnership with the citizens of T&T we provide for safer, more secure and healthy communities through focused leadership, service and policing excellence.”
Each of us has a part to play to promote a harmonious, peaceful society. As Fr Clyde Harvey said in his excellent TED Talk recently, “All of us are responsible and all of us are guilty…Let us all dare to dream of a renewed society and be faithful to this dream.”
Policing is one of the most noble professions. T&T owes a debt of gratitude to the many good men and women in our Police Service who continue to work diligently and professionally on a daily basis and who pull their weight to ensure that the service achieves its goals.
Members of the TTPS are operating in a context in which we all face many challenges. These may impact adversely on their work, e.g. poverty, urban decay and social exclusion/inequalities/inequities, family disintegration, lack of quality education and employment, poor housing, mental illness, the proliferation of guns, drugs/substance abuse, gang violence, and a lack of respect for authority and the rule of law.
The TTPS must engage in an honest discussion about what it has achieved over the past three years – during the ‘life’ of its previous plan (Agenda for Change) – and consider also whether the previous plan really addressed the needs of a 21st century Police Service. Did the TTPS have an operations plan that took into account the effectiveness of TTPS facilities, equipment, ICT strategy, vehicles, staffing requirements, quality control plans and so on?
What action was taken to address deficiencies in the system? How are we measuring police effectiveness, e.g. in terms of recruitment, on-going training, deployment, supervision and management of TTPS? Central to such evaluation is the gap that often exists between Plans/Policies and their operationalisation.
I was saddened to hear EACH member of TTPS’ Executive introduce himself/herself in an “Acting” capacity. And, we still cannot appoint a permanent Commissioner of Police. This does not augur well for us if we want to develop public confidence in the Service. If we develop systems for succession planning and ensure that there is on-going, high-quality training for TTPS members, we should not have to look overseas for our Police Commissioners. Let’s have more confidence in our ability to ‘grow’ leaders from our own soil.
Our anti-crime strategies are not working because we are not taking note of the many excellent recommendations outlined in the various reports that have been produced over the years, e.g. the United Nations Development Programme’s Caribbean Human Development Report 2012 titled Human Development and the Shift to Better Citizen Security (http://www.undp.org), launched in T&T on February 8, 2012.
The Report highlights the fact that the criminal law, as it exists in countries such as T&T, will not help to build a just society. It calls for regional governments “to beef up public institutions to tackle crime and violence – including the criminal justice system – while boosting preventive measures.” Preventing crime includes dealing with the rogue elements in the TTPS.
We also need to address deficiencies in the Administration of Justice. We are a long way from achieving evidence-driven policing. The low rate of detection and arrests, lengthy delays in the administration of justice, lack of personnel such as probation officers and social workers, and the lack of effective restorative justice approaches, etc. all contribute to the state in which we find ourselves.
We seem to ignore advice from our Inspector of Prisons, attorney-at-law Daniel Khan, who told us in his 2012 report that we must address issues such as the rehabilitation of prisoners or they will keep re-offending. He said about 74% of those who are released from our prisons re-offend within three to five years.
Do we want to keep spending money to warehouse people, or should we be trying harder to help them to become productive, law-abiding citizens? Warehousing people is another sign of the failure of our criminal justice system. And, what about white-collar crime and corruption?
Catholics, let’s seek to regenerate the morals and values of our society – starting with ourselves.
