New CoP must be people-centred

Former head of the National Operations Centre (NOC) Garvin Heerah says the new Commissioner of Police must adopt a community policing and people-centred approach.

Acting Commissioner Stephen Williams, former president of the Police Social Welfare Association Anand Ramesar, former minister of National Security Gary Griffith, Assistant Commissioner Irwin Hackshaw and retired policeman and calypsonian Wayne “Watchman” Hayde are among those already interviewed by KPMG, the recruitment firm hired by the Police Service Commission (PSC) to select the most suitable applicant for the post.

Heerah, in a release, said for the successful candidate to move the police service from its present position to an incline or ascension of efficiency, “it’s of paramount importance to seriously consider the adoption of community policing and problem-solving policing with a total quality management approach.”

He said community policing, problem-solving and total quality management (TQM) were key factors in treating with difficulties facing police and other law-enforcement agencies worldwide. He said TQM is a system of organisational development for achieving customer satisfaction by delivering services and products that work, and extensive training, statistical methods, employee teams, and performance management are among the key precepts that need to be engaged.

He said there has been extensive research in the field and some researchers and practitioners have cautioned that community policing will not take hold in organisations whose management style is designed for reactive, call-driven policing models. Heerah listed four criteria for successful TQM transformation:

- It must be based on a quality mindset and quality orientation in all activities at all times;
- It must be strongly humanistic to bring quality to the way employees are treated, included, and inspired. Therefore the onset of being people-centred must take priority over being project-centred;
- It must be based on a decentralised approach that provides empowerment at all levels. This is a working model and gives credence to the adoption of meritocracy across all boundaries of the spectrum and must be reflected in the decision making throughout and;
- TQM must be applied holistically so that its principles, policies, and practices reach everyone, every function and every unit.

Heerah said these criteria are germane to a successful transformation to the community-policing and problem-solving approach of the TTPS’s new paradigm.