Police and Policing in the Caribbean—The Colonial Legacy

The police in colonial Caribbean countries originated as a centrally organized and controlled paramilitary arm of the colonial state invested with coercive powers and the right to use legitimate violence to maintain social order and uphold the law. They functioned to coercively subjugate the colonized masses to preserve a milieu conducive to colonial rule and economic exploitation. The imagery of the police as a “natural” part of colonial society was dispelled. The police were instead revealed to be a deliberately contrived institutional transplant established by the British imperial rulers with the expressed mandate to impose social order and protect property and other dominant interests. The case of Guyana, formerly British Guiana is investigated to provide deeper understanding of the colonial legacy of police and policing in the Caribbean.