I am very aware that while i have been a citizen since 1992, taught for over 2 years as a volunteer here, lived in a local community, married a local woman, that most people in this country will see me an a ‘2nd class’ citizen (at best) due to the fact that i was not born in SVG. This also includes not giving any weight or validity to any views i may have regarding anything about this country.
I continue to live in a local community, and in doing so interact on a daily level with ‘natural born Vincentians, including listening to their observations and concerns about policing in this country. So my appreciation and thanks for listening to the insights i have gained from living 21 years in Bequia.
The vast majority of Vincentians have no confidence or indeed have any trust in the police. Why? The reasons are very complex.
In essence, there is a very long history of lack of professionalism within the police service that starts at the very top and continues to every constable. While policing in theory should be free from political interference, many Vincentians view that the police service has become a ‘force’ to preserve the political ‘status quo’, with little or no effort put into what people know and understand as ‘proper policing’.
The general view among the public is that there is almost zero pro-active policing, and that the police simply stay in their station house and ‘react’ when a member of the public reports an incident. Thus because of lack of pro-active early police intervention, situations often tend to spiral out of control. And even when matters are reported to the police, they show little appetite for adequately investigating or dealing with problems and issues that arise, which in turn leads to citizens often taking matters into their own hands, because they feel it is pointless going to report anything to the police.
Added to the complexity is that fact that with such a small overall overall population, even police officers who are idealistic and motivated, invariably come under pressure either from superiors, family members or friends, to not follow through when they do intervene, as it is someone another person ‘knows’. So good police offices very soon learn to ‘play the game’, and turn a blind eye, as they know that to do otherwise will doom their chances of any possible advancement in the future.
On an administrative level, the current ‘status quo’ is never spoken about but jealously guarded as it suits all ranks in the police service. Inspectors with responsibility for a certain district are more often than not, not based in that district but rather have a desk in police headquarters. This suits the inspectors, as they are based in Kingstown and have access to the benefits of being based in the capital, and it also suits the rank and file junior officers and constables as they don’t have the inspector looking over they shoulder on a daily basis i.e. God forbid possibly causing them to do their job properly (or at least better!)
Many citizens feel that the police service has become overly political in the sense that it is bias in favouring guarding political ‘elites’, big interests, and to a lesser extent favours known ULP supporters and offers little (if any) assistance to NDP supporters.
I witnessed a number of years ago the Prime Minister boarding a flight, accompanied to the aircraft by 3 (three) detectives. Could/should these police force members not be better deployed at crime investigation/crime prevention?
In a nutshell, the ‘organisational culture’ within the police force is broken to such an extent that it is hard to find any citizen who has any real confidence in the police.
Editor, i only skim the surface with the above issues i have highlighted.
Again, let me emphasise that these are observations, comments, frustrations that have been made to me by ‘natural born Vincentians’. For now, i will refrain for sharing my own personal experiences, encounters and interactions with the police.
Concern Citizen
