Good Cop, Bad Cop

Two police officers sat behind the desk. They stared at her blankly. Neither man moved a muscle; they stared at her as though she had horns growing out of her head. She realised she was not commanding the policemen’s attention nor conveying any sense urgency of her plight. She tried again. She cleared her throat and raised her voice to repeat: “My daughter has just been kidnapped!” One of the policemen, rising sluggishly, asked, “So how yuh know she get kidnapped?” Frantically, she explained that her daughter was snatched while she driving through the front gate of their home. As her words poured out, she began to cry. The policemen asked for a description of the vehicle, but she couldn’t give any because she, the mother, was not at home at the time her daughter was kidnapped in the driveway of their home. She said a neighbour who saw the entire incident described the vehicle as a heavily tinted, white B13 Sentra. The policemen asked her whether her daughter had a boyfriend. She said no. The other officer picked up the photo of her daughter from the counter and exclaimed, “Yuh mean to say ah good lookin gyul like dis eh have a boyfriend? Yuh mean you doh know if she have one?” Confused and dazed, aware of the fact that time was passing quickly and frustrated by the casual attitude and irrelevant questions of the policemen, the mother asked, “What does whether she has a boyfriend or not have to do with the fact that she was kidnapped?” Dead silence. The officer asked his colleague (who was holding the picture) whether he should call the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS). He replied, “For what? We eh have no proof dat dis gyul was kidnapped.” Contrary to policy Almost 30 minutes had gone since she first came into the police station and she started begging the officers, literally, to do something. They eventually agreed to accompany her back to her home, but said they had to wait because there was no vehicle currently available. She offered to take them with her, but they said that that was “contrary to policy because she was a civilian.” They had to wait until the official police vehicle, which was on inquiries, returned, they told her. Her belly started churning with a mother’s grief and gut-wrenching pain. She telephoned her husband who had already marshalled several vehicles with friends, villagers and family to go in search of their daughter. She was comforted a bit and found herself profusely thanking her husband who angrily retorted, “What stupidness yuh talkin, is my child yuh know?” She gave the officers the “good news” only to be told that they were wrong to take the law into their own hands and not wait for the police. “Allyuh eh need no police, allyuh is all yuh own police,” an officer told her. She left the station. An hour later, two police officers arrived at her home saying that they had come in connection with “some ting about some kidnapping.” They said this not only with an air of disbelief, but also with more than a hint of sarcasm. They then proceeded to ask the same question that the policemen at the station has asked her: Whether her daughter had a boyfriend. They then interrogated her about whether she had any enemies. Unable to cope with the trauma and confusion of the thoughts that were now assailing her, she called for the neighbour who had witnessed the kidnapping, to speak with the officers. Worthless police theories She swears that as long as she lives, she would never be able to forget the snide comment she overheard from one of the officers that “she (her daughter) probably run away with a man for a few days.” She panicked as she heard the cop say this, remembering reading about the gruesome rape and murder of 12-year-old Radha Pixie Lakhan whose body had only recently been discovered, she had been murdered. She remembered that little Radha’s mother had expressed a cruel and ironic sense of relief that at least her daughter’s mutilated corpse had put to rest the nasty rumours leaked to the media by the police that her daughter had gone off with a man. She remembered that that was the main theory and lead the police were working on until a search party stumbled upon the child’s lifeless body. A few hours later, three officers from the AKS arrived at the family home. She said they appeared more concerned and genuine, unlike the other officers who the family has seen so far. The AKS officers treated her daughter’s disappearance as a real kidnapping and not a missing person’s case. The AKS officers told her they needed to tap her phone line. She agreed, the excessive protocol and bureaucracy took two whole days. The officers told her that it was not necessary for any technician to visit her home as the phone line could be tapped at source through TSTT. It was that easy. A crude tape recording device was then used to monitor and record all telephone calls. The unimpressive, archaic recording device led her to question the officers about the availability of more modern equipment. The officers explained to her that although such high-tech equipment existed, it was not available to the AKS because it was “being used for other purposes by the State.” They confessed to not having the necessary equipment and resources to do their job, but seemed committed to getting the job with what they had, she said. Praise, criticism for AKS The mother was full of praise for the AKS officers as they lived through the ordeal with the entire family with great empathy and understanding. She wondered whether these officers receive counselling as they moved from one case to the next. There was, however, one particular officer whom she said she did not trust — he seemed more interested in providing financial advice as to how she could raise the ransom money as opposed to trying to find her daughter. Truth be told, she felt that with only the odd-looking tape recorder at their disposal, the AKS officers were more helpful at counselling the family than conducting a serious investigation into the kidnapping. The kidnappers knew that the residential line was tapped, they contacted the family through friends and relatives, she said. And she revealed that during one frightening conversation with the kidnappers, they actually called the name of one of the AKS officers who was assisting the family in negotiating the ransom payment from the home phone. The kidnappers called this officer’s name in an effort to prove their claim that the police too, was involved in the crime. Though it frightened her, she did have her doubts about this claim. She had been reading up on kidnapping on the Internet and read that the kidnappers claiming the police were involved was a common tactic designed to erode trust and confidence in the cops so that the family would bow to the wishes of the kidnappers and pay up. But still, she did not ignore or discount the possibility that the police could be involved. She thought of that particular officer who was so intent on advising the family on how to go about raising money to pay the ransom; who constantly sought information from her about local and foreign bank accounts, properties and other assets. He had told her to sell off a piece of land she had inherited from her father and seemed to be more than just disappointed when she appeared to be reluctant to take this advice. He had even jokingly offered to purchase the land himself, commenting aloud that he was looking for a nice place, she recalled. One good Samaritan The ransom money was eventually paid and her daughter was released. She walked for miles in the dark, until the sun was coming up and a kind and brave motorist stopped for her. While she was walking, several drivers slowed down, observed her dishevelled and tattered appearance, but refused to stop. The duct tape that had been repeatedly ripped from her mouth during her two weeks of captivity had left the flesh raw. With her hands having been tied behind her back, she had been unable to drive away the flies and mosquitoes; her face was covered with the insect bites. Back at the police station, the police refused to allow the mother to see her daughter saying they were awaiting instructions. She almost went insane. How could they prevent her from seeing her daughter? As she sat in the waiting room, she saw an officer enter the station, look at her daughter and heard him say, “How all yuh have dis woman smelling up de place so. W’appen to she? Like she get rape or what?” Her daughter was eventually examined by a doctor and allowed to go home with her. Secret and death One of the AKS officers who was stationed at her home while her daughter was in captivity subsequently paid her a secret visit. This officer confessed to having grave misgivings about one of his senior colleagues. She saw him as one of the more professional and caring officers and she allowed him to speak with her traumatised daughter, to see if she could be of any assistance in his attempts to investigate the possible involvement of his senior colleague in the kidnapping. She never saw or heard from this officer again, but was to subsequently read in the newspapers that he had been killed in a police station by another officer whose firearm had allegedly been accidentally discharged.