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(Cont’d from last week…)By Dale Andrews    RESISTANCE BY RANK-AND-FILE OFFICERSRhetoric by public officials and activists for policing reforms are often dismissed by detractors as political games.  The technical programmes devised are not supported by skeptics since these activities are proposed in some instances by civilians.But in all fairness, the rank and file within the Guyana Police Force (GPF) might be simply mirroring a hostility to anything which involves civilians in defining their work competencies or evaluating their performance.  As obtains with top management the juniors would not like civilians influencing their operational priorities, or promotional prospects.Aggravated ingrained dislike may also stem from a perception among frontline ranks that individuals in the community are actively involved in policing matters only because they want the police to provide them with personal service and protection.  It is not unknown in Guyana that certain groups and individuals look to the police to protect and defend their social and economic interests.  In that regard any reform programme which threatens the status quo is headed for failure through active and passive resistance from both sides of the public protection spectrum.RESISTANCE BY SPECIAL UNITSSpecialized units are often threatened by programmes that require them to change their ways.  Where it is found that these units have special relationships with politicians, public officials will protect them against inconvenient elements of reform.  Questions continue to swirl around the many unsolved crimes like the Trevor Rose murder, and extra-judicial homicides where police involvement is suspected.Elaborating upon this type of resistance, Skogan identifies “nooks and niches in the organization where police … hide out and get ahead, including the organized crime division, the narcotics unit, and various roving squads of plainclothes tactical officers.”  He reveals that these groups’ “anonymity and disconnection from any community contact helped them ‘take heads’ and ‘kick ass’ with relative impunity, in the name of good, aggressive policing.”COMPETING DEMANDS AND EXPECTATIONSTraining requires officers being removed from duty while being paid, which places a demand on the national purse.  Thus, training in terms of content quality and context appreciation suffers when police administrations seek to implement new programmes cheaply while looking to get different results.  This situation is aggravated when officers have to be diverted away from direct operational tasks like responding to calls to social experiments in “at risk” communities with no apparent regard to appropriate training for roles, while ignorant of what measurable outcomes are desired.  Skogan argues that police forces are resentful about new programmes which are only known about after they have been adopted.On Producing Change in Police Organisations: The Story of the New South Wales Police Service (1996), Dr. Christopher Reynolds in looking social expectations – among them more sensitivity and responsiveness to community needs ­ –  blames many policing problems on the nature of “policing administration itself.”INABILITY TO ‘MEASURE WHAT MATTERS’One problem facing policing is an unwillingness or inability to document what the police are doing or if they are being effective.  A fact of police practice is that activities which are measured are more likely to be publicised, regardless of the impact of unmeasured accomplishments.  The reliance on numbers as in reduction of fatal accidents, or increase in number of guns seized ‘undervalues’ intangibles such as community satisfaction, public involvement in crime prevention projects, and the formation of police-community partnerships.”The Guyana reform experience is still at its formative stage, and it is left to be seen if there will be a marked departure from an emphasis on quantity, which likely is a major obstacle to reform to the inclusion of qualitative references in achieving reform goals.FAILURE OF INTER-AGENCY COOPERATIONUnresponsiveness by sister agencies to requests by the police in moving forward elements of its reform programme is a major impediment to success, which may be due in part to competitive bureaucratic, budgetary or professional constraints.  Requests for interventions by the relevant institutions in a quest promoting Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), might not be readily acquiesced to thereby frustrating the process of cooperation.PUBLIC UNRESPONSIVENESSPast experiences have not prepared the public to understand the goals or tactics associated with new approaches to policing.  People become accustomed to seeing programmes come and go in response to political and budgetary cycles that are out of their control, and they are skeptical that promised reforms will be any different.Representatives of vulnerable and minority groups may be more interested in highlighting police misconduct and advocating for greater police accountability to civilians than in becoming closely identified with them.  Therefore the uninformed,http://www.soccerpro.us.com/Atletico-Madrid-FC/, whether citizens or the police themselves, will most likely define their expectations of policing in traditional terms,New Jersey Devils Gear, expecting more patrols, fast response times, and arrests to solve their problems for them.  To address this situation,Adam Shaheen Jersey, police reform requires aggressive marketing before the public can understand what is being attempted or accomplished.NASTY MISCONDUCT DIVERTING PUBLIC AND LEADERSHIP ATTENTIONThe recurrence of highly publicized acts of police violence affects public attitudes, reversing whatever improvements in public opinion have been accumulated.  Excessive force, including torture and killings by police, become a public issue,Chicago Blackhawks Gear, destroying any progress in police community relations.  The same is true of revelations of widespread or deep police corruption.  Misconduct undermines reform efforts, causing loss of focus on managing innovation, and diverts media attention from the less newsworthy aspects of police reform.Outside of the political rhetoric, there has not been any significant sustainable movement on the part of the GPF administration to rethink and redefine the nature and purpose of policing.  Therefore there is no encouragement for a higher standard of professionalism which could lead to the elimination of corruption.REFORM MAY NOT SURVIVE LEADERSHIP TRANSITIONSkogan wraps up his resistance typology by the argument that a new commissioner may want to do new things; to make his own mark,Calvin Ridley Jersey, and may have little interest in picking up the unfinished projects of his predecessor.  To avoid uncertainty and to sustain reforms,Boston Celtics Jerseys, the astute change manager must have the capability to build public and political support for reform.  Reforms are likely to fail when the newcomer foregoes political support, and deep support from the community.The temptation to sacrifice or scale back mandatory performance and accountability reviews to make time for unfocused discussion must be resisted, because in the final analysis, the only consideration that protects the reform programme is the political infeasibility of shutting it down.(Next week we will examine the ways by which the current police reform programme can be sustained).