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Friday, June 02, 2006
Roperos: Police and public trust
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
One of the most desired “commodity” in our contemporary national society is public trust and its close ally, public confidence. Together, they compose the ideal of those who occupy public offices.
Almost everyone who has been elected or appointed to a high public office is presumed to enjoy tacit public trust and deep public confidence. And no one, after having taken their oath of office, is supposed to betray that public trust, or demean that public confidence bestowed on them by their position.
But in recent years, these notions have been easier said and publicly acknowledged than truly respected and honored. In a sense, most it not all of our public officials are thought by the people as paying lip service to the twin notions of public confidence and public trust, but never as a proven standard public behavior in public office.
Take complaint of a lady proprietor of a convenience store and eatery in my hometown about a member of the town police the other week. One late afternoon, one of her customers lost her wallet left on the table when she went out for a while. A PO1 came to investigate.
But without really probing into the complaint, the police officer just accused two the food servers as the culprits and tried to bring them in. The lady proprietor intervened in behalf of her workers. She knew they were honest, and the police officer was acting rashly, even berating them.
When she told me about it, adding that the PO1 did not even show any respect for the town’s police chief, I told her I would pass the information to a friend at the provincial police command. After all, it was not the first time I heard about the police officer’s conduct.
My friend at the provincial command told me to assure the lady proprietor that he would have it looked into, and I would hear from him as soon as possible.
Well, after about a week, the lady proprietor told me that no one came to her to inquire about her complaint. I said I would try to pass on to my friend at the provincial command her inquiry.
I understand from her that she just wanted the police to make members of the corps understand that for them to retain public trust and sustain public confidence, they should not look at the public as people to show off their power and authority to.
My friend at the provincial command assured me once more that he would follow it up with the police chief of the town. I then assured the lady proprietor that her case would really be looked look into this time. I even showed her the text message of my friend.
And I thought that would be end of it. But early this week, the lady proprietor sent word to me that truly, nothing had happened to her complaint.
The thought of the people’s trust and confidence in our government officials being slowly eroded because of neglect and inattention led me to put my dismay in writing. Nothing personal here, but I am just trying to reassure a lady in distress that perhaps, things are not really all lost yet with our country.
And her trust and faith in our civil servants should still hold.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June , 2006 issue)
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