Our Attorney General was heard during television news last Wednesday night inquiring about the activities of the police service and, in particular, about their responses to reports of statutory rape of girl children who subsequently gave birth.
As a member of the public I share his concerns yet I know that Cabinet members have more effective and formal avenues for making such an inquiry of the police service.
But of greater concern I wondered what prevents all members of the public from asking similar formal questions of the Attorney General as to how his estimates of expenditure align with his office’s planned activities and how his plans lead to the outcomes the country seeks.
The adjustments and changes to the police service, implied in what he said, are similar to adjustments required of the Office of the Attorney General and all state bodies. In fact, we all have adjustments to make and the best conversation is where our adjustments talk to the adjustments of the rest, promoting agreements in which we come to share safety and security.
You see, all this to-ing and fro-ing simply blinds us to a key strategy of a safe T&T: partnership of the Office of the AG and the police service, partnership of TTPS and communities, partnership of the Fraud Squad with Homicide, partnership of TTPS with business communities, religious communities, household communities and other bodies.
The integrating elements of these partnerships include trust, understanding, agreement, and mutual agency. Their integration rests on repairs to individuals, families, communities, the nation and the region.
How do we get this across to the police officer at the front desk, to the mother whose 12-year-old child just gave birth, to the powerful politician holding sway over his/her political party and related institutions?
Mutual agency implies that we bind each other with our visions, our behaviour, our strategies, our very actions. To be safe we do all this and, we understand why we so agree and, we live these agreements and reconciliations, through thick and thin.
Simon Clement