No confidence in cops

The people have had enough—of the police. The issue was succinctly conveyed on placards carried by protesters outside the Leonora Police Station on Friday, one of which read, “No confidence in the GPF.” The problem is that the President and his government are not listening.

There has been a whole series of police failings in recent times. However, the police handling of the case of Adrianna Younge, whose body was found in the pool at the Double Day Hotel in Tuschen, was a particularly egregious example of their dereliction. The 11-year-old had gone with her grandmother and two siblings to swim at the hotel pool on Wednesday.



One of Adrianna’s cousins had told this newspaper that all of the children were swimming, and then the little brother went to his grandmother to say he was hungry. She accordingly took out food for them and told him to call his sister, at which point he said he couldn’t find her. Thereafter, the grandmother had recourse to the receptionists, who according to her report laughed at her, saying they had not seen the child.

The pool was searched, which did not produce any result, so a request was made to check the CCTV cameras, but she was informed these were not working. A report was then made at the Tuschen Police Outpost, and the police did search the premises. However, this newspaper was told that some of the rooms were locked and that these were not searched.

The parents remained all night outside the Double Day Hotel and were given permission at midnight to search the pool, but again Adrianna was not found. They stayed outside until sunrise. The child’s body was found in the pool after protesters scaled the wall of the hotel on Thursday morning, and her mother told Stabroek News there was cotton wool in her nostrils.

While the police conducted a clearly inadequate search of the hotel premises, they also did not appear to have made any attempt to speak to or contact other people who might have been at the pool at the time, and who might have noticed Adrianna and whether she left the pool. Even this was not the primary area where the police brought discredit to themselves; it was in the matter of a press release. While the manager had confirmed the hotel CCTV cameras were not working, late in the afternoon the child’s relatives had been given access to the camera attached to the house opposite, which seemed to indicate that Adrianna had never left the hotel.

In the meantime, the police had issued a release which played its part in fuelling the riot, during which the Double Day Hotel and its proprietor’s house were looted and burnt down. This statement had said that on the basis of the camera footage from the neighbour’s house, Adrianna had got into a red and black Toyota Raum car—PSS 4684—which had driven off in the direction of Vreed-en-Hoop. This directly contradicted what the family said they had seen on the same footage, and their account to all intents and purposes was reinforced by a second police release issued subsequently.

This new statement must represent the most astonishing communication from the GPF in the last 20 years. “[I]t has been determined,” it ran, “that certain details contained in the initial statement circulated were inaccurate. As such, the Force is currently reviewing the internal communication processes that led to the release of that statement.

” The clear implication of this is that the first release was a fabrication, and, if so, then a review of “the internal communication processes” is hardly sufficient as a response. Who was it who devised this fiction and why (to the extent of giving a car number), and on whose orders was it released? This goes beyond incompetence and raises suggestions of corruption. It is true that the Police Force assured everyone of a “comprehensive investigation” and that they would examine the “circumstances under which inaccurate information was disseminated”, but this is definitely not an instance where they can investigate themselves.

In addition, it is not even as if the police did an acceptable job of more run-of-the-mill duties like managing the protests, making sure the Fire Service could get access to the burning buildings and preventing looting, although a few people were charged subsequently in that regard. Of course President Irfaan Ali rushed in, as he does on such occasions, to comfort the family and tell the public, “We must uncover the full truth of everything that transpired..

.” And who does he intend should uncover this “truth”? None other than the commissioner of police who is to assemble a special team. And as for the contribution of Mr Hicken to date, he has engaged in the customary musical chairs, transferring the Region Three Commander to Regional Division Four B.

Adrianna’s family has rejected the pathologist appointed by President Ali, and has secured the services of a North American pathologist. In addition, they want an external police agency to probe the circumstances of her death—something they are more than justified in requesting. There is, however, a more fundamental problem at issue as well.

All governments in this country have regarded the police force as a political arm, which is why it never graduates to any kind of professional status. It is why, too, a man who does not meet the constitutional requirements and whose performance is, at best, insipid is at the helm of the GPF. Owing to the fact that governments do not want to release their political stranglehold, they have refused to entertain the setting-up of a civilian oversight body for the police, similar to England’s Independent Office for Police Conduct, to give one example.

They fob critics off by pointing to the Police Complaints Authority, which is not independent of the Force—and is not allowed to function as it should, in any case. As things stand, crime crises pop up periodically in one part of the country or another, and they are all treated and responded to as individual events. They are, however, symptomatic of an underlying problem affecting the GPF as a whole, and it is that larger problem which needs to be addressed.

If the President is serious about police conduct and performance, he needs to start by accepting a police complaints body which is independent of the Force, to allow himself to inch towards a professional rather than a political approach. In a statement last week, President Ali said blocking roads, burning public infrastructure and inconveniencing citizens were “now politically instigated”. He is mistaken; they have their origins in exasperation with the police.

• Reprinted from the Stabroek News..