Hawkins Nanton, Gleaner WriterGOVERNMENT HAS put on hold the programme which saw 60 officers from the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) assigned to full time duty at the Transport Authority.
And the move which was implemented on August 4, last year to bring more discipline to the transport sector has been taken back to the drawing board.
On Wednesday last week, the officers who had been attached to the Transport Authority packed and left the premises.
"It was not effective," Joan Fletcher, managing director of the Transport Authority told The Gleaner. He said the programme had not been changed, and "we need to get it working."
The decision to suspend the programme was taken at a meeting last week.
Leslie Watts, Deputy Com-mandant of the Island Special Constabulary Force, said the decision was taken to put the programme on a two-week break to sort out its problems which had developed at the supervisory level.
POLICE AND CIVILIANS
The problems are believed to have been stemmed from the issue of police and civilians working alongside each other. Mr. Watts said the officers are still working, but "they are not working out of the Transport Authority."
PROMOTE PUBLIC ORDER
The announcement that the officers from the Island Special Constabulary Force have been working with the Transport Authority was made by Infor-mation Minister, Burchell White-man, on August 9, 2004, when he told journalists that the Cabinet had signed off on sweeping measures to promote public order.
At the time he said: "The Cabinet accepts that a comprehensive and coordinated approach to public order will promote greater accountability, enhance the integrated use of government resources and will improve the degree of collaboration between state agencies and civil society in maintaining law and order."
Transport Authority inspectors monitor bus routes for violations by licensed operators, and with the police, remove illegal buses. But they have no powers in relation to private vehicles in breach of the traffic laws.
