The Editor, Sir:

The Police force has been for several years since Independence an area where people who cannot find employment elsewhere are utilised. It has never, in modern times, as in days of old, been a real career magnet and the few who thought so and came from the army soon learnt to their bitter disappointment that it was not. Jamaica has lost some very excellent persons who made the transition from the army to the JCF but left frustrated and embittered.

The constabulary force once had high ideals as was symbolised by excellent detectives like Henry Mansfield Wellington, D.G. Wanliss, Kinghorn, Marston and others who were men of competence and integrity.

The police force draws its recruits from our society, and since the society has deteriorated in its values and in its worth, then so will the force.

I am at a loss to know why we have a standing army that is purposeless in these days of guided missile warfare. Why don't we merge both services and come up with a paramilitary force that is differently trained, and whose members are subject to rigorous testing and screening so that the force no longer becomes the refuge of the unemployed and unemployable?

I am, etc.,

MIDDLETON WILSON

Wilsonmiddleton@aol.com

Florida