Former Boston, Los Angeles and New York City police chief William Bill Bratton yesterday said the problem of the corruption in the police force is difficult to solve but noted that the process of solving it must begin with the hiring process.He made the comment after arriving in T&T yesterday to conduct a seminar, titled "A country to defend", at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, today. Asked about what he would do to address the issue of corruption in the T&T Police Service (TTPS), Bratton said:
"The issue of corruption, unfortunately, is not unique to your country. The good news in that environment is where there is a will, there is a way."Bratton said there were several strategies and techniques employed the world over to address such problems but that the process for ridding the service of corrupt officers should begin with the hiring process.
Speaking on his experiences at a press conference at Piarco airport yesterday, Bratton said: "There are techniques and strategies that can be employed here. The process begins in the hiring. They are bringing in the wrong type of people into the profession...that can help cause the problem."
He said the good news was that there were systems to help deal with the problem but that it was a very difficult one with which to deal. Saying he did extensive work on the issue in Central America, he noted that many corrupt officers were often poorly trained, poorly paid and poorly selected.He said his purpose at the conference was to share his experiences from other countries but said he also would learn about T&T's policing system.
"The idea is we don't profess to have all the answers to this issue nor do we have all the ideas. The benefits we have had over the number of years in other countries is that when we take ideas with us, we also come back with new ideas," he said.
After being appointed NYC police commissioner in 1994, Bratton was credited with the reduction of crime in the city as well as turning around the LA Police Department where, according to an October 17 New York Times article, "he showed he could repair relations between minority communities and a police force once synonymous with brutality and corruption."
Asked if Compstat, the data-driven management model implemented by Bratton in NYC in 1994, for which the reduction in crime in NYC has been credited, could be employed in T&T, Bratton said:"Every city that we go to, every country that we go to, we attempt to introduce that system. It is, we believe, an essential element of any modernisation and successful effort to deal with the issue of crime."
Bratton defined it as a mapping-system which could identify troubled areas and then place police resources in those areas.In a brief phone interview with the T&T Guardian yesterday, Police Social and Welfare Association president, acting Insp Anand Ramesar, said the association appreciated the issues raised from the onset by Bratton.He said, however, that not enough had been done to stop recruiting bad eggs in the service.
"Recent hirings have shown that a lot of people who are unsuitable for policing have slipped through the tracks," he said.He said Bratton's visit was an opportunity to identify the cracks in the T&T system and find remedies to improve it.National Security Minister Gary Griffith, acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams, deputy Commissioner Mervyn Richardson and Minister in the Ministry of National Diversity and Social Integration Embau Moheni also were present at yesterday's press conference.
Griffith, when asked how much Bratton's visit was costing taxpayers, did not give an exact figure but said it was a small amount in comparison to General Hugh Cameron Ross (brought in under the People's National Movement Manning-led administration). He jokingly said he could even pay for Bratton's visit from his own pocket.
Griffith said Bratton's track record spoke for itself. He said Bratton's crime reduction in NYC "was second to none." He said the topics to be addressed at the seminar would seek to aid in T&T's crime reduction.He added: "We think that this is a win/win situation for the Republic of T&T. This is not just for us to piggyback off of what Mr Bratton has achieved.
"What Mr Bratton will do is conduct a diagnostic test, upon which we can look to a threat- assessment, analyse our threats and then we can utilise our national security resources in an effective manner."
Biography on William Bratton, taken from Wikipedia
William Joseph "Bill" Bratton CBE (born October 6, 1947) is an American law enforcement officer who served as the chief of police of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), New York City Police Commissioner and Boston Police Commissioner.
He began his police career at Boston Police Department before becoming Police Commissioner in New York City, where his zero-tolerance policy has been credited with reducing petty and violent crime. He moved to Los Angeles Police Department in 2002, reforming the police after the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and crime was reduced.Bratton's policing style is influenced by the broken windows theory that if minor, petty crime is not dealt with, crime will increase.
He advocates having an ethnically diverse police force representative of the population, maintaining a strong relationship with the law-abiding population, tackling police corruption, being tough on gangs and having a strict no-tolerance of anti-social behaviour.
Bratton was approached by British Prime Minister David Cameron to become the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner in July 2011 but this was blocked by the Home Office on the grounds the commissioner must be a British national with experience of English law.Bratton instead was offered an adviser role to the British Government, which he accepted in August 2011.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Law Enforcement from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and was a research fellow at the John F Kennedy, School of Government, Harvard University.