| Reinventing The Wheel |
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| Written by Administrator |
| Thursday, 12 November 2009 00:00 |
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Oftentimes we see our problems as being particular to Belize when really they are part of a global or regional phenomenon. Although solutions must be tailored to our specific needs and resources there is no shame in taking solutions that have proven beneficial in similar situations elsewhere and crafting them to fit the Belizean context. Crime, and especially youth crime, is a case in point. In researching what works in other locations however, we must beware of only taking on the outward symbols of a successful program and ignoring the substance. It is well accepted that the police need the support of the community to perform well. However, in many of the areas with the highest crime rates there is an almost complete breakdown of relations between the police and the community even though the residents of these areas suffer the greatest harm from crime. Buzz words such as “Community Policing” and “Neighbourhood Watch” have been imported and used locally, but these concepts have had a negligible effect on police/community relations and hence on crime. A look at jurisdictions such as Los Angeles and New York where the police were viewed with great distrust shows that the required changes run very deep. In such cases the entire senior ranks were regarded with great suspicion and seen to be part of a structure that was hostile to the community, corrupt, incompetent or a mix of these traits. Tinkering with the high command was not enough. The same is probably true of Belize. This is not to say that individual officers fit this classification but that they are perceived to do so. The only way to deal with this is to fill several of the most senior posts with outsiders who are in no way associated with any past misdeeds. In Belize, this would involve bringing in officers from other commonwealth countries with a similar legal system as Belize and this was one of the key recommendations of the recent Crooks Report. An example from North Carolina indicates another useful trick. In 2004, a particular neighbourhood was an open-air drug market where gunshots punctuated the night and honest folks were scared to walk the streets. The police would periodically come storming in like an occupying army, grab a few young men and arrest those found to be in possession of drugs or weapons. Some went to jail, but within hours of such a raid the area was back to business as usual. The residents of the area, even the law abiding ones, grew to hate the police who, in turn, were frustrated that residents never reported crimes or were unwilling to give evidence. All this changed when on the advice of an expert in criminal justice the police changed their tactics completely. They started talking to community leaders in informal discussions and found out who the local gang leaders were. There were fewer hardcore and violent leaders than they expected. Patiently, the police continued to work with community leaders and informants to compile dossiers on each of the suspected gang leaders and their acolytes. They then arrested the most violent ones and invited the rest in for a chat. The young gang bangers were shown all the evidence that had been accumulated against them and given a choice. If they stopped dealing drugs and carrying weapons they would not be prosecuted. A “community co-ordinator” was assigned to each of these young men to work with him to help him turn around his life whether it was a place in school, a safe place to stay, drug treatment or a training programme. Family members and community leaders were also involved as part of the support network. Given the stark choice of making a change that very day or going to jail for a very long time the majority of lower level dealers chose to change. Drugs are still bought and sold, but the neighbourhood is liveable again and the rate of violent crime fell dramatically. These are but two examples to be studied and possibly duplicated in Belize. With the train running out of control, there’s no time to reinvent the wheel. It’s not too late to save a large portion of this current generation of young men and stop the rot from contaminating the next generation. Our young women will not lose their men to jail or gunshots and our children will know their fathers. |