Police-citizen relations key to crime fighting

Ian Boyne

Far more crucial to containing crime is changing police-citizen relations than changing minister of national security. Many thought that former military man and commissioner of police-turned-minister of national security Trevor McMillan would have made the difference in crime fighting.

Neither he nor any other minister of national security has ever left that job with a reputation of success. The present opposition spokesman on security, Derrick Smith, who is sharp in his criticisms of the present minister, as is his duty, left that ministerial post with no discernible success. Changing Peter Bunting and putting anyone else will not be the magic elixir. We keep on taking simplistic approaches to our complex problems.

Crime fighting requires a multiplicity of approaches. But central to any strategy that has a chance of success is police-citizen relations - and perceptions. If we are to inch further to solving our monstrous crime problem this year, we have to find a way to bridge the enormous and terrifying trust deficit between the police and the citizenry, including the gap between police and civil society.

The widespread cynicism about the police in the media and the constant negative news about the police - which might be justified - is not, objectively, healthy. I make no statement as to whether the police deserves this. Just hear me out. I am saying that in fighting crime, we need a police force which has the active support of its citizenry, including the media and the human-rights community.

If ordinary, decent citizen in communities resent the police, see them primarily as brutal murderers, corrupt and abusers of citizen rights, then no amount of sophisticated equipment and technology; no amount of money thrown at crime fighting, no amount of brilliant strategising will help us. And it won't make a difference who is minister. The first order of business for any minister of national security is to change police-citizen relations. This can't be done merely through community policing and having more football and cricket matches and establishing more police youth clubs.

In 2014, we have to find a way to reform the police force and to garner public support so that as citizens and police we can unite against criminals. I am an advocate of what Professor Anthony Harriott calls the crime control model (hard policing). But that is only part of a menu of strategies. Hard policing can't work by itself. I say I am for that model to distinguish myself from those who take a purely social justice approach. I believe a combination of measures has to be used. I don't believe that merely tackling poverty, unemployment and social inequities is enough to deal with the crime problem.

Jamaica is not likely to have enough money in the short term to deal with our social deficits, so if we are waiting on that to solve crime, the problem will escalate before it recedes. There are some dog-heart, hardened and vicious criminals who can only be dealt with by force, not platitudes or beatitudes. My favourite street-smart columnist, Mark Wignall, had an interesting piece in last Sunday's Observer ('If the gunman shoots, should the police talk?' Damn good question, Mark).

Wignall begins his column by recalling that a story of a former member of the notorious Natty Morgan gang told him: "Yu si if a yout wid a gun wah go pon a rampage pon a road an him hear seh jus one house pon di road have a gun owner, him nah go pon dah road deh. Him a go somewhere else. Nuff time a just di police a save citizens."

We don't keep that in mind often and our constant criticism of the police can be demoralising and debilitating. Wignal, who is himself a strong human-rights advocate but a man who knows the Jamaican street, concedes: "The country has other serious social problems and many of them are rooted in the fact that many of our youngsters are uneducated, unemployable and packed inside townships otherwise known as inner-city communities. But for now, without the police we would be all dead." Despite his hyperbole, we get the point.

We have to say these things more often. We have to hear them more on talk shows and on discussion programmes. But, more important, the police need to inspire greater confidence. There is far too much abuse, corruption and general disrespect to citizens displayed by the police. You can find decent, law-abiding, Christian people who will tell you horror stories of what they have personally witnessed from the police. A whole attitudinal revolution has to be tackle place in the force.

preaching to the converted

Launching fancy marketing campaigns using electronic media and newspaper ads preaching to the converted (both of which benefit me as a media man) is fine, but much more useful would be on-the-ground revolutionising of the police force. I am talking about simple things like inculcating in them a culture of respect for people; teaching them discipline and self-control. Even if they are 'dissed' and insulted, they must practise anger management.

Professor Anthony Harriott, said in his 2009 GraceKennedy Foundation lecture: "The history of policing suggests that the relationship of the police to the people served ... is primary. While technology is useful, it is not a substitute for this." He drew the example of Trinidad and Tobago. "There has been considerable expenditure (well beyond the means of Jamaica) on many information-gathering gadgets/surveillance equipment and forensics support systems. The best possible instigative training was given to a large number of police specialists. Yet, like Jamaica, their conviction rate has continued to fall."

Technology is no panacea. Social intervention is not. Certainly, changing ministers is not. The police need to earn our respect, honour and support, then we can "unite to fight crime", to use Bunting's new tag line.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and ianboyne1@yahoo.com.