4 days Ago
Criminals have murdered an average of 49 people for every month of 2024 so far. Police officers have killed an average of four. Many citizens will see the latter as acceptable and even justified.
The problem is, nobody knows if the 39 police killings were legitimate or not. Despite having over 1,000 body cameras issued to them, not one police officer out of the 6,500-strong body has seen fit to record these fatal interactions. This is so despite explicit orders from Police Commissioner Erla Christopher and her division commanders.
In an interview published in yesterday’s Sunday Express, Police Complaints Authority (PCA) director David West said the PCA has received no body-cam footage from the 23 police-related killing incidents they are investigating. He also revealed that complaints against officers have increased steadily, with over 500 filed this year alone. Since 2019, complaints have averaged 536 annually with a 28% rise over the past five years.
Now, to push a point to breaking, such behaviour might be, if not acceptable, at least tolerable if crime were under control. But, contrary to a statement made two weeks ago by Deputy Police Commissioner Junior Benjamin after seven people were murdered within 24 hours, this is manifestly not the case. Ironically, DCP Benjamin also admitted to the Sunday Express that no officer had been disciplined for not wearing the body cams, which means the DCP is not in control of his own officers.
Part of the public’s “kill dem” attitude stems from the myth of the late Randolph Burroughs, who had an image as the country’s toughest Police Commissioner and supposedly kept the criminals under manners during his tenure from 1978 to 1987. In fact, figures from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) show that, under Burroughs’ watch, crime increased by 43%, with burglary rates rising 30%, rapes almost doubling, and the murder rate increasing 100%. As the old saying goes, those who fail to learn from the past will repeat it.
The failure of discipline within the Police Service feeds rising crime rates. If those responsible for maintaining law and order flout the law and embrace disorder, the criminally inclined will inevitably be encouraged to do so, too. In a quasi-military organisation like the Police Service, enforcing discipline is crucial.
Not wearing body cams is a symptom of deeper problems. To cite another old and even truer aphorism, power tends to corrupt. The high number of police complaints suggests that smoke indicates fire.
This issue can be nipped in the bud if the Government provides Commissioner Christopher with the authority she needs to do so. That would include changing the Police Service Regulations so the CoP can institute disciplinary action more easily, from docking the pay of errant officers to firing rogue ones. On the specific issue of police killings, it is also essential to improve witness protection so people will not be afraid to speak out.
If such changes aren’t put in place, to invoke a local saying, crapaud smoke we pipe..
