It’s nec­es­sary that a new Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er sets the right tone on her first ma­jor pub­lic plat­form.

In do­ing so, par­tic­u­lar­ly af­ter the blood­i­est year in the coun­try’s his­to­ry, it’s even more cru­cial that the tone in­spires con­fi­dence in safer days ahead.

This is what new ap­pointee Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher sought to do when she ap­peared be­fore the mem­bers of the Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee of Par­lia­ment on Mon­day with the view that with­in three months, the coun­try will be­gin to see pos­i­tive out­comes.

While the ma­jor­i­ty of the pop­u­la­tion wants Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s vi­sion to be­come a re­al­i­ty, it will, how­ev­er, take more than the be­lief she has in her plans, to boost the pub­lic’s con­fi­dence.

Hare­wood-Christo­pher has no easy ride af­ter com­ing in­to the hot seat amid an un­prece­dent­ed preva­lence of gang vi­o­lence and mur­ders.

This is why, with over 600 homi­cides last year and an­oth­er 100 in the first two months of 2023, a three-month pe­ri­od for the start of a mean­ing­ful turn­around, seems quite am­bi­tious even for some­one with years of polic­ing ex­pe­ri­ence like her.

The cli­mate she faces is daunt­ing.

The coun­try has over 100 gangs whose mem­bers are equipped with weapons that are of­ten more lethal than those used by the po­lice.

The rate of mur­ders and the very low de­tec­tion rate have giv­en crim­i­nals feel­ings of in­vin­ci­bil­i­ty, which is on­ly made stronger with the back­ing of dirty cops on their pay­rolls.

The im­puni­ty with which these killings are car­ried out and the ex­tent to which videos tak­en from CCTV cam­eras are shared, gen­er­ate fear among law-abid­ing cit­i­zens.

As such, the as­sis­tance po­lice need from the pub­lic in re­port­ing crimes is floun­der­ing, as even the most dis­creet mech­a­nisms to do so are avoid­ed be­cause of a lack of trust in their guar­an­teed safe­ty.

The leg­isla­tive pow­er to back the po­lice is al­so not ful­ly there, par­tic­u­lar­ly af­ter the Bail Amend­ment Bill, which al­lowed courts to de­ny bail for 120 days to peo­ple charged with spe­cif­ic of­fences un­der laws per­tain­ing to firearms, gangs, drugs, sex­u­al of­fences, ter­ror­ism and traf­fick­ing in per­sons, failed in Par­lia­ment last Ju­ly when the Gov­ern­ment sought to ex­tend it.

These are just a few of the prob­lems that stand in the way of the po­lice, which al­so in­clude the need for prop­er DNA test­ing, quick­er bal­lis­tics as­sess­ments and tighter con­trol of our bor­ders where weapons and drugs en­ter.

Her time­line aside, Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s aim to make gang and gun ac­tiv­i­ty a pri­or­i­ty is the right move and if achieved, would set her apart from her pre­de­ces­sors.

In 2014, when Gary Grif­fith was ap­point­ed Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter long be­fore his tenure as Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, he had then not­ed that the homi­cide rate was due to so­phis­ti­cat­ed gangs and gang mem­bers and their will­ing­ness to com­mit all man­ner of crimes to achieve their ne­far­i­ous in­ten­tions.

They were, back then, re­spon­si­ble for up to 400 mur­ders and the Gov­ern­ment’s promise was to “hit them hard.”

Yet, al­most a decade lat­er we con­tin­ue to face the same chal­lenge with even high­er homi­cide num­bers.

It’s clear that the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er means well and in­tends to give the coun­try her best.

Like her pre­de­ces­sors, she too ought to be giv­en the ben­e­fit of the doubt, but she may find that af­ter sim­i­lar past as­sur­ances, her time­line would be tak­en as a case of see­ing is be­liev­ing.