COMMISSIONER OF POLICE Francis Forbes has announced new policy guidelines for the use of force by the police, procedures which have been accepted in a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Police Officers Association, the Police Federation and the Island Special Constabulary Association. The fact that a formal Memorandum of Understanding was felt to be necessary when the rules are those which should be enforceable by the High Command in any case, shows the level to which bureaucracy has infected the Force. But better late than never and if the symbolism will help to ensure implementation of the guidelines on a day-to-day basis, we applaud the move.
The Commissioner also announced what one would have thought to be obvious, namely that senior officers will be held accountable for the actions of men who take orders from them and report to them. The Force Orders now mandate that "Supervisors will be held responsible if they knew or should have known that the officers under their command have used force in an unlawful way or did not take all measures in their power to prevent, suppress or report such use'.
This seems to be simply a restatement of general legal and constitutional principles i.e. that the 'unlawful' use of force is murder if it results in death and that any attempt at a 'cover up' by a supervisor is suborning a felony, which is itself a criminal act. Senior officers who may not pull the triggers themselves are nevertheless conspirators with their juniors if they instruct them to commit murder or if they stand by and see junior members commit murder but do nothing about it.
These are principles that Civil Rights groups have been espousing for a long time. They will obviously be pleased to see them now spelled out in detail. It is now becoming apparent that some fundamental changes are taking place in the culture of the police force, painfully slow in retrospect but moves in the right direction. Perhaps further refinements will come more easily now that inertia has been overcome. We hope to see a geometric progression in police reforms generally even as we welcome these interim steps.
