THE EDITOR, Sir:
IMAGINE WHAT would life be like without police? The homicide rate would have been tripled. The banks would have been robbed. Gangs would have run wild and ripped shopping malls apart. And no one would obey the traffic laws. The crime wave would have tested the limits of the morgue and flooded the hospitals. And think of the faces behind gunshot and stabbing victims would have been frightening. The kind of lawlessness presented would be unprecedented.
No matter where we live, evil is just below the veneer of civilisation. We need the protection of the police. Of course, most of us have heard or even experienced brutality, corruption, indifference and abuse of power from police officers. The incidents vary in degree from situation to situation. But what would we do without the police?
Respected and disciplined police officers do help people, offering social services. In a typical day an officer may attend to a sudden death, a traffic accident, a crime, and a confused elderly or a child in need of help. A police officer has the resources and time to offer help when people turn to them sincerely for support. They protect people from crime, at least to some extent.
The range of services that police officers provide is vast. It ranks from rescuing hostages to confronting bank robbers.
Hope lies in the police force if professionally trained, returning to traditional style of neighbourhood policing. Modern advances in communication have tended to distance police from the people whom they serve. Hope is there if the original emphasis on crime is strengthened. Proper policing is effective if the police study crime and the nature of crime and begin to see the lesson in it.
A stronger hope is there if police take the initiative to improve relationships between themselves and the public and be more compassionate towards victims. There is considerable room for improvement. Police officers must show desk-side manners to victims in the same way a doctor shows bedside manners to patients. They must not be incompetent and abuse human rights.
Our world is not safe and without police we would probably have anarchy. But even with police our society continues to be flooded with crime and violence. They are not immune to crime. We cannot rely upon police to save our society from crime. The public's part of policing is needed. How do we act if there are no police watching? Do we take advantage of their absence to break the law? We also should be police in the absence of police.
I am, etc.,
CLINTON W. D'OWNER
3-7 Ashenheim Road
Kingston 11
