THE EDITOR, Sir:THE UNLAWFUL conduct of some members of the Police Force (9/5/05) in relation to their detention of a minister of government to meet their demands is only a pimple evidencing the sore of increasing indiscipline in the force since Independence to the disgust of the public, and happily, a great number of members of the force.
The force is supposed to be a semi-military organisation, semi-military to underpin necessary discipline and so during the colonial era, training officers and senior officers were recruited from the army as a matter of policy.
This policy should be reinstated as well as the practice of weekly drill parades or at least monthly drill parades introduced in all divisions. I am also suggesting that a high-ranking officer from the army be assigned to the force to supervise training and continue drill parades.
I would also like to see reintroduced the practice of sergeants marching to courts to take up positions by at least half past nine so that judges do not have to wait for policemen to come to court to start court after 10 o'clock. Policemen who have cases in court should not be absent from court without prior permission of the court except they are appropriately excused from attendance by a medical officer. What is usually accepted as appropriate is the confinement of a witness to bed.
I am, etc.,
OWEN S. CROSBIE
oss@cwjamaica.com
Mandeville
