Watchman for top cop? — Nah!

Like so many issues in this country the discussions surrounding the appointment of a new Commissioner of Police has not surprisingly gone off at a tangent with some bright spark recommending that we get a foreigner. Well, according to our law, the top cop must be a national of Trinidad and Tobago, so let’s stop the foreigner talk immediately.

Of course a government as strong as the PNM is today could change the law but would have to consider the ramifications of such an act. There would be many, believe me. But do we mean to say that of all the thousands of men and women in our police service (incidentally why has no one thought of a woman for the post?) there is none to be found to fit the bill? But to be honest, why anyone would want this job is a mystery to me. Surely it must be the hardest one in the country in this high crime season, even more difficult and certainly more embarrassing than being Opposition Leader in Parliament today. But when the Commissioner of Police speaks one expects to take him seriously.

Nevertheless, there are many contenders for the job including a man by the name of Wayne Hayde who is today in far off East Timor working for the United Nations International Police Commission. The name may not mean much to you but you would certainly recognise it if I tell you that he was a policeman who sang unde the sobriquet “The Watchman.” Remember him? PNM to the bone. Was he not the man who once sang a calypso at a Dimanche Gras in which he suggested that the then Prime Minister, ANR Robinson (who had become very unpopular after cutting public servants pay) should be put in a boat out in the Gulf for the Venezuelans to have some target practice? Do we need such a person as Commissioner of Police, even though at the time the Venezuelans were provoking us by shooting up our fishermen? I do not think so. In fact if we had had a strong Commissioner of Police at that time, Mr. Watchman would have been disciplined for such a suggestion about the head of the government which the police service is supposed to protect.

Others have been calling for a man such as the late Randolph Burroughs. Remember him? I certainly remember the numerous photographs of him in newspapers. He was usually seen armed with a big gun standing over a dead bandit. Apparently like Sherrif Lobo he always got his man. Yet the Scott Drug Report showed another side to this great crime buster. Police insiders have dismissed stories  that Burroughs actually used to lead those regular and highly publicised raids. The story is that they were carried out by junior policemen who were called upon to risk their lives. But somehow or the other the media photographers were always tipped off at the right moment and arrived on the scene in time to capture a staged tableau of Burroughs and the dead bandit and of course Burroughs got all the credit for being a super cop. But there are those who saw him not just as police, but also  prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner.

Given our horrendous crime situation today there are those who would say yes, we need a man like Burroughs. But we need to think well before we go down that road again which placed so much unchecked power into the hands of one man. What the country needs is a no nonsense man/woman of integrity, a strong man/woman who would not only have the responsibility but the authority to deal with the situation. Such a person would first of all rid the service of the crooked cops who not only protect and consort with criminals but are themselves criminals. He/she would then lead the officers and men into battle against crime, not simply call the media to press conferences, with hand wringing and lamenting the unprecedented level of crime or reeling out statistics that bring no relief to the victims. And who would understand that laws alone are meaningless unless the police do their job from the top down. We require a Police Commissioner with leadership qualities, management know how, detective skills, a person who is fearless with or without a gun and who has the will to take us out of the present disaster.

jstarr@newsday.co.tt