Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
ANOTHER BRITISH detective is expected to finalise his contract in order to work as an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) next week.
With the entry of that detective, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) moves one step closer to recruiting four more senior British officers to join Mark Sheilds, deputy commissioner of police in charge of crime, who has held his current portfolio in the JCF since March 2005.
The senior British officers are to be brought in at the rank of ACP.
"One is currently in the country and expected to finalise his contract in order to start work next Monday," Gilbert Scott, permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security told The Gleaner, yesterday, the other three are close to this stage."
All of the officers are being recruited on three-year contracts.
"I am very optimistic that we will reach agreement within the next seven to 10 days, although the taking up of their posts will be sometime after," Scott said.
The four were selected following advertisements in policing magazines in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. Nonetheless, only the British applicants were successful.
Mr. Scott said, yesterday, that, despite applications from different countries, "that's just the way the process went. The advertisements went to several markets and on the basis of who applied and who was chosen, this was the result."
Announced last October, Mr. Scott said at the time that the strategy to recruit foreign officers was an "infusion of a body of outside talent (which) will help to accelerate modernisation" of the JCF. But, partly funded by the UK under a still-to-be-finalised cooperation agreement, only British officers have been successful, so far.
Yesterday, Derrick Smith, Opposition spokesman for national security, continued to give conditional support to the recruitment. "The Opposition has already signed off on this, but we still insist that these foreign functionaries must be for a specific period not exceeding four years in the first instance," he said. "They must be skilled and experienced and they will have to ensure that their experience is passed on within the JCF."
The Police Officers Association (POA) had last year written to Minister of National Security Dr. Peter Phillips expressing concerns about the recruitment of foreigners to their ranks. But POA Chairman, ACP Leon Rose said, yesterday, that the Minister had responded in the form of a written reply and a meeting. "A significant number of things that we queried had been dealt with," he said. However, he offered no comment on yesterday's news.
Candidates were initially interviewed by the Police Service Commission and those who were successful were invited back for a second interview with Commissioner of Police Lucius Thomas. The Gleaner understands that candidates' concerns over their 'terms of reference' have so far delayed their signing on the dotted line.
Vacant ACP portfolios
Homicide and serious crime investigation
Professional standards and anti-corruption investigation
Operations and firearms
Community policing and crime disorder partnerships.
