A functional Police Service

It is not often that you see someone with a getaway donkey. (Presumably there have been instances when a getaway donkey was used.) You see someone with a getaway car, so you have to deal with this as an integral part of your anti-crime manoeuvres.” What does he propose? Sweeping amendments…on the vehicles side of the law — red light enforcement, fixed penalty offences, the ability to pay fines online etc (Express 23/1/17). What is needed are not more laws. The urgent requirement is to upgrade the capacity of the Police Service in the use of relevant technology in controlling crime at the vehicular level and bring it into the 21st century.

In my column 11 years ago, I stated: “Policemen and women need to be supported by the deployment of useful modern technology and trained in their use. A most urgent imperative is timely access to information and data. The police should have ready access to computers with capacity for storage and instant retrieval of all kinds of crime-fighting information from the bio-data and background of criminals to the registration particulars of motor vehicles and the detailed description of localities.

“An adequate supply of reliable communication equipment and serviceable vehicles outfitted with appropriate computers and communication devices should also be made available, together with helicopter support for surveillance, detection and pursuit activity. Thus a policeman in a vehicle or in a station should be able instantly to access relevant information on a vehicle, its owner and driver as well as on likely suspects and the specifics of localities and roadways.

“It is in these areas that priority expenditure on hardware should be incurred instead of purchasing useless aerial surveillance gizmos and non-functional surface surveillance cameras.” Limited access to and training in the use of modern crime-fighting technology is certainly not the only or major problem which afflicts the Police Service.

In the first instance there is the issue of a flawed system of recruitment which sees many recruits unsuited for the job being taken on board. Since such people continue to form a significant proportion of the Police Service, it is obvious that the Commissioner of Police has been delinquent in implementing effective measures to deal with the problem. After recruitment, I presume that there is a sufficient period of probation and training at the end of which an evaluation is conducted by means of which unsuitable recruits are discharged. But how effective is this process? The next problem to be addressed is that of discipline in the Police Service. If the disciplinary process is functional, why does it take ages to bring disciplinary matters to conclusion and how does this affect morale in the service.

If an unacceptably large percentage of the complement of the Police Service is either corrupt or is in collusion with criminals or engages in subversion of justice or is guilty of violent behaviour or is in dereliction of duty, the service cannot be improved without an effective disciplinary regime and the purging of these unsavoury elements.

Another problem is the attitude of policemen to their duties and their relation with members of the public. If this does not change and if the overall performance of the service does not improve, then the confidence and trust of the public cannot be attracted and, without this element, the effectiveness of the service will continue to be wanting.

Nor will community policing or collaboration of the communities with the police bear results. And c e r t a i n l y the intelligence- gathering capability of the service cannot be improved.