EDITORIAL - Public accountability in law enforcement

Everybody understands that there are certain types of law enforcers who need to protect their identities. NBI agents are certainly among them. But there are many ways to stay anonymous or incognito. Wearing masks and hoods during operations should not be one of them.

For apart from the need of certain law enforcement agents to protect their identities is an even much greater need to make law enforcers accountable for their actions and accountability can only be assured if one is eventually identified or identifiable.

The NBI may be the country’s premier investigative law enforcement agency with agents who are highly-trained and able to stand on their own against the best in the world. Nevertheless, they are not perfect and could make mistakes for which they may need to be accountable for.

Take the case of the recent Compostela incident in which masked and hooded NBI agents nearly wiped out a notorious robbery gang from Manila, believed responsible for the heist pulled at the Greenbelt mall.

While we join the rest of the nation in praising the NBI agents for their successful operation, we cannot in conscience agree with the manner in which that operation was carried out, particularly why the agents had to wear hoods over their faces at all.

We are now only ecstatic because the operation went extremely well. But what if it had gone terribly wrong? What if some civilians got killed in the crossfire, or worse, they killed the wrong persons? Who would be made to answer for the mistakes? Ma-TY lang diay?

It is precisely during an operation, where chances for mistakes are greatly heightened, that a truly responsible agency such as the NBI should make certain that public accountability is assured, instead of compromised.

Maybe the NBI needs to revisit its rules of engagement and scrap whatever provision that requires its agents to wear hoods during operations. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is also good PR. Certainly it would boost the NBI’s image if its agents do not look like criminals.

The FBI, which is clearly the inspiration of the NBI, has never been known to allow its agents to use hoods during operations, especially for such a flimsy reason as to protect their identities. The only time FBI agents’ faces are unrecognizable is when they wear gas masks.