Errol MillerON MONDAY, July 3 the Minister of National Security, the Commissioner of Police and other high ranking officers met with nearly 1,000 rank and file policemen and women about unwarranted shootings by the police. This came in the aftermath of some policemen shooting at a bus with passengers in the circumstances where the driver did not obey the order to stop.
If one takes a detached look at the matter this is just another in a series of instances in which policemen have resorted to the gun in circumstances that were entirely inappropriate. Such instances are not of recent vintage. I am sure many of us will recall that on the visit of Nelson Mandela to Jamaica, and at a function at the National Stadium where crowd control became problematic in a section of the audience, a policeman let off a few rounds from a weapon that killed a man who was far beyond the area in which there was a problem. I still say to myself thank God it was not Mandela who was hit.
The issue at hand is the over-reliance on the gun as a means of law enforcement. The result of the meeting seems to have been that a special training programme will be mounted to address the issue. In my view this does not go far enough. It is a stopgap and knee-jerk response.
I have always been sympathetic to the police. In a real sense policemen and women invariably see society and people at their worst. They are usually called when there is a real breakdown in social and personal relationship and are frequently confronted with the ugly side of human nature. It takes a strong mentality to remain balanced with these circumstances as daily experiences. In Jamaica, the police are often expected to deal with the mess that the ruling elites have created and in that regard are often given basket to carry water.
While the quick, hasty and almost reckless use of the gun cannot be excused; there is a structural reason for it. A few years ago a group of us looked at training in the police force and came to the conclusion that six months at the Police Academy and 18 months apprenticeship on the job was very inadequate preparation for the task of policing in Jamaica at the end of the 20 century. I remember being taken by surprise at the fact that when the six-month course at the Academy was analysed we found that close to 80 per cent of it consisted of instruction in the laws governing policing, drill, self-defence and the use of weapons. The other 20 per cent dealt with such areas as language, psychology and sociology. In the 18 months following, recruits are rotated through different departments thereby exposing them to the practical aspects of policing. This period also incorporates them into the existing culture of the Force. However, when looked at as a whole in my view this structure of training is neither appropriate nor adequate for the demands that now confront policemen and women.
Nurses are trained for three years during which classroom instruction and clinical exposure are interspersed. Teachers are trained for three years or six semesters, one semester of which is spent in teaching practice in schools. In the case of both teachers and nurses the admission requirements in terms of educational achievement is higher than that for the police. Only the most casual glance is needed to see that both teachers and nurses, not to speak of lawyers and doctors whose training is even longer, get a great deal more preparation for the practice of their occupation than the police.
Our recommendation was that at minimum the period of training for new recruits at the Academy should be extended to one year. Further, much more time should be spent on such foundation areas as sociology, government and psychology. It is crucial that policemen and women have a sound understanding of the roles and functions of a police force in a democratic society and the ways of interacting with citizens. To the best of my knowledge these recommendations have not been implemented.
It is my considered opinion that part and parcel of the problem of the over-reliance on the gun resides in the fact that on the whole policemen and women are not receiving adequate training and preparation for the increasingly complex job of policing. Further, young recruits are being incorporated into a changing culture within the police force itself that lionises a 'Rambo' approach to law enforcement.
While ad hoc training is helpful, structural changes in the length and content of the programmes preparing policemen and women for their jobs are absolutely necessary.
Errol Miller is Professor and head of the Institute of Education, UWI, Mona.
