ben's Pen

June 29, 2010

*From previous week.

Police Watchdog Urgently Needed

SEVERAL years ago, I introduced a bill establishing the Guam Community Police Review Commission. It was eventually passed into law. But successive governors failed to make appointments to the commission, causing the dissolution of the body pursuant to a public law that repealed all boards and commissions that have failed to meet within a year of their establishment. No members. No meeting. No board.

After some serious gaps in the relationship between the community and the police department due to actions of its members and most especially how management handled these issues, I re-introduced the proposal as Bill 108 this year. It was signed into law as PL 30-76 which re-established the commission. To date no members have been appointed and I will be forwarding some suggested names for members of the commission.

The recent matters involving the police department and its management is clear and convincing evidence of the need for the community police review commission.

Maintenance of community credibility and restoration of the public trust begins with and hinges on police accountability and aggressive enforcement of internal policies to regulate those who protect our lives and properties. Such a process would ensure public confidence in the impartiality of the investigation process and results, and more importantly, in the administration of justice by our men and women in blue.

And judging from the tone of the latest acting appointment to the island’s top cop, I have some grave reservations with the direction the police department is taking and whom they want to administer justice to. According to these statements, the new chief wants to continue the search for who leaked the information on the hiring of what is now more than one police recruit whose lie detector test reveals deception or lies.

It appears that with this new or old-new management, people who expose lies and violations of laws are the culprits and they are the ones that need to be rehabilitated and forgiven. Those who did the violation are to be protected.

This is exactly the mentality that has caused the deterioration of not only the public’s trust in our police department, but the trust of the department’s own finest. Those men and women who see wrong and want to fix it. They need to be treated as allies not enemies.

The men and women in blue and our community do not need a police department that circles the wagon and lowers the blinds to keep the public in the dark. The Guam Civilian Police Review Commission is just the entity and ally these law abiding men and women in blue need and deserve. They need a body that will open things up and give these matters the public light, to re-establish public trust in our police department.

Now more than ever, we must move forward on the appointment to Guam’s Civilian Police Review Commission.

 

ben pangelinan is a Senator in the 30th Guam Legislature and a former Speaker now serving his eighth term in the Guam Legislature. E-mail comments or suggestions to:

senbenp@guam.net     or         senben@guam.net

ben's Pen
2010

 

ben's Pen
2009