St Lucia government to rebrand the police force, says home affairs minister

• Credible irresponsibility ‘looking at rebranding’ the RSLPF
• RSLPF should be disbanded …
• RSLPF is a strategic failure
• Systemic ignorance of what happens in abeyance

By Caribbean News Global contributor

CASTRIES, St Lucia – The government of Saint Lucia is seemingly cognisant of CNG’s reams of articles, that the ‘RSLPF (Royal St Lucia Police Force) should be disbanded in much the same as Minneapolis disbanded its police department [seven] years ago’; and albeit, integrity matters in national security, comes the announcement by minister for the public service, home affairs, labour and gender affairs, Dr Virginia Albert-Poyotte:

“One of the things that we have stressed, especially when it comes to the police force is that they are actually looking at rebranding.”

SMLH October 18, 2023 At 8:12 am

“A statement to deflect on the reality that exists in St Lucia and the incompetence of those people we have as leaders. Police arrest for gun (s) in barrel; police giving minister info on private citizens and the lady talking about rebranding. No mention of what her colleague said or eluded to. What about making the IMPACS report public for all of us to read? PJP has no interest in it, but some of us do. Our money paid for it after all.”

Repeatedly, the failures of the RSLPF are in full view, however, rebranding will not end an embattled colonial derelict that is poorly funded, unequip, corruptable and as recently revealed, I said police officers to have given a government minister information.

Nothing new here, given the relentless wheeling out of those words, on social media, talk shows and the watering holes.

It is often said that the public does not trust the police. They do not trust the system, providing the police with information knowing that if this is done, the informant becomes a target. The alternative is to keep quiet. Mouth shut, eyes closed.

There is the expression “lipstick on a pig” – the making of superficial and/or cosmetic changes in a useless effort to masquerade fundamental failings.

It is also commonly known that rebranding is a market strategy, the methodology of changing a corporate image and/or design for an already-established brand.

Thus, given the nature of the RSLPF waiting the best-laid plans askew; is it viable to rebrand a colonial vestiture of incompetence and moral decay? Or, will age and time get the better of rooted character and credentials that confer the reckoning of political misadventure?

What is abundantly clear with the RSLPF is the politics of strategic failure and the systemic ignorance that has never and will never provide any answers.

The article ‘St Lucia government botched policy’ July 4, 2023, reads:

“Amid improved equipment and increased resources, Saint Lucia’s police force is beyond repair. Moreover, allegations of sexual misconduct/harassment continue to cloud the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force, (RSLPF) unable to protect its image and mandate. The shuffling of commissioners of police is a farce. It remains to be seen if the silence of the government is free from assumptions about the crime wave, public finance and economic development. And, albeit competencies that compound the issues as exemplified, current national situations conflate the pedigree associated with politics and governance.”

Conversely, the CNG article ‘St Lucia’s Gazetted police offices should be sent packing,’ February 27, 2022, noted:

“And besides, policymakers should be more adaptable to thought process and the necessities before uttering speech of their lesser competence. This is not a critique, but an observation and opportunity for the continued readiness of the government to plan a redeployment of the RSLPF. The result should be a holistic methodology to national security. The RSLPF [1834] malignant culture is tainted, not the least by Operation Restore Confidence (ORC) and still subject to the Leahy Law is unfit for modern-day policing, law enforcement and futuristic systems.”

Yet again, a CNG resource, February 23, 2023, noted:

“ The hierarchy of the RSLPF are out of their wits,” hitherto,“ the dysfunctional RSLPF remains in peril as a short-handed force, with a poor human resource component, intelligence, enforcement and communication and of no match to the elements playing hide and seek, police and crooks in the streets of Saint Lucia. The reality remains – the RSLPF – should be stripped to a constabulary police service,” the intelligence resource recommended.

In the interim, however, policymakers are celebrating their credible irresponsibility in doing the tango ‘looking at rebranding’ the RSLPF. 

There can be no such viable explanation that the rebranding “centres around fostering a greater rapport between the community and the police,” much less to say: “We are looking at the issue of intelligence – using a lot of intelligence to fight crime,” said home affairs minister Albert-Poyotte.

Poule Foo October 18, 2023 At 12:52 pm

“Rebranding with the same attitude and same corrupt players. That sounds like a winner to me. I know a winning strategy when I see one. The force needs an overhaul just like a jet engine that has done its hours of operation. The institution must be taken apart and delicately put back together with new personnel, training and leadership. Simply issuing new uniforms and equipment is like putting old wine in new glasses. […]”

It turns out that the RSLPF has become quite the circus, in a small perplexing landscape, deciding how to protect the country, and whether the interactions are genuine or just a trend.

Soon one may not have to wonder at all, because a Trend is a general direction in which something is developing or changing; and like a Fad – a quick rise and decline in popularity.

#MeToo October 18, 2023 At 7:32 am

“Every day those responsible give lip service. They are not serious about crime fighting in the new age. The resources they promised are yet to arrive. The police are literally begging for paper, protective equipment, vehicles, electronic crime management system and the list goes on. The requests are sitting on someone’s desk complaining about no money. And yet these guys are jet-setting every week and collecting thousands. Fire service got something, what about the police, Bordelais and the justice system? Right now, we just have to beg the criminals to give us a break from Christmas. Will that work, when things are so hard?”

In the midst of this policy whirlwind, pinpointing what is not identified systematically is not considered a zen approach, but systematised ignorance.

Mischief October 18, 2023 At 4:25 pm

“Rebranding in the real world of corruption, poor service, laziness, ‘breach of data’, how does rebranding help the Saint Lucian population? Are you going to change the uniform, and the name; and paint the [police] stations a different color? In other words, you will be doing some cosmetic changes which have no significance to the people of Saint Lucia?”

To embrace the do-something five-year political trap and react impulsively to gain political points, one can say that there’s room for improvement.

However, the utterance of “rebranding” the colonial vestiture of the RSLPF unfit for modern-day policing, law enforcement and futuristic systems, amid incompetent leadership is itself an oxymoron. Yet alone, in a country facing financial chaos, deprived healthcare, infamous homicide statistics and a government in its very own organized symphony, the synonyms of being in abeyance of cognitive dissonance.