Police reforms more than raising pay

Everyone’s screaming for police reform, and given the insecurity that blights our country, very understandably so.

But unfortunately, too much of the talk has emphasised only a subset of what is needed.

We understand and accept that we must pay and house our policemen and women properly; that they must work in decent and well-equipped offices; and that they must be mobile.

However necessary all this is though, it is far from sufficient for delivering an effective police service.

I know that the committee within GJLOS (the expired Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector reforms initiative) charged with looking into transforming the police only managed to elicit positive responses from the senior officers present when the talk was of such things as improving salaries and housing.

As soon as the subject turned to the work itself, to the core business of preventing and reducing crime, the officers lost interest.

As often as not they didn’t even show up to the meetings.

As elsewhere, and not least in the public service, there are serious challenges with the prevailing culture.

When recruitment and promotion are not always on merit; when enlightened leadership is often lacking; when poor pay becomes a justification for everything from owning matatus to the generation and sharing of bribes; when impunity reigns; then all the salaries and cars and computers in the world might make little difference.

I was led to reflect on all of this after being stopped by a policeman in town the other day.

It happens to all of us and usually when we are in the greatest hurry, as I was.

Not that we even remotely look like we’ve flouted any law, no.

Rather, it is their entrepreneurial instincts that lead our law enforcers to spot suitable revenue generating opportunities.

These days, the core competence of traffic policemen is in shaking down matatu and truck drivers, not to mention ordinary motorists, over some hoped-for technical infringement, however minuscule.

‘Pull over there,’ my tormentor barks, ‘Give me your licence.’