LEON ROSE, the chairman of the Police Officers Association (POA), is quite within his right to believe that he and other senior officers of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) are underpaid. They may well be.

In that event, it is the right, and responsibility, of Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Rose, or his successor, to make the case for increased salaries to their employers, the Government of Jamaica. After that, it is a matter for negotiation, based on the value the Government places on the service provided by these police officers and, very important, its ability to pay.

It is unfortunate, we think, for Mr. Rose, in arguing for more payfor himself and others of the senior ranks of the JCF, to draw into a public negotiation the salaries being paid to foreign officers recently recruited to the constabulary when he well knows the circumstance of their appointment and the source of their pay.

Indeed, it ought to be no secret to Mr. Rose and the POA that Jamaicans had, over a long period, grown disenchanted with the JCF. They believe that it had grown corrupt, inept and repressive, contributing more to social instability than the prevention or solution of crime.

Jamaicans in demanding a reform of the police force were convinced it could not be achieved only, or even primarily, by internal leadership and demanded that we get external help. It is quite possible that the people were wrong in their assessment, but it is in this context that three foreign officers have been recruited to the senior ranks from the United Kingdom. A fourth is to come.

These foreign officers receive salaries substantially higher than their local counterparts. But as we understand it, and as Mr. Rose would be in a better position to know, it is the British Government, as part of its contribution to the reform of the JCF, that finances the difference between the Jamaican pay scale and the salaries these officers would receive if they were on a U.K. police force. In that regard, the British are helping Jamaica to pay for what Kingston perceives to be needed expertise.

The issue for Jamaica, of course, is whether we are getting, as they say, bang for the bucks, albeit, somebody else's money. It is still too early to say, although there seems to be a growing confidence in the constabulary and a 20 per cent decline in murders so far this year, which many people believe to be the result of the actions of the foreign officers.

When Mr. Rose, therefore, makes carping comparisons between the salaries of the foreign officers and those of his own constituents and seemingly makes allusions to their next destination in the JCF, he does neither himself nor the POA any favours. People are likely to see a red-eyed attempt to stir-up disaffection rather than a serious, and genuine, response to the fundamental problems facing the JCF.

Our advice to Mr. Rose and the POA is that they move beyond the pay of the expatriate cops, and see their engagement for what they are - medium-term hiring for specific expertise. They should seriously engage the Government on the matter of reform, matching higher salaries to specific deliverables.

The POA also needs to stop shifting the goal post on performance-based contracts. Indeed, the POA has more to offer than the perception of stirring envy and discord.