THE EDITOR, Sir:

I WANT to congratulate Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin for taking on the hardly envied position of commissioner of police. It is, however, hard to believe that one of his first pronouncements is in respect of the closing of some police stations. For my part, I think that we need more police stations; what may be needed is the repositioning of some of the existing stations to more volatile areas, where the presence of the police may be felt on the spot.

The presence of the police stations, especially the ones he used as examples, has stopped a lot of violence in the areas where they are located and has contributed to peace in those areas also - and that includes the Mountain View Police Station. What is also needed is more manpower so that these stations will be more effective.

He cited closed police stations as one of the reasons for his strategy, but manpower and proper supervision are the real reasons why these stations are closed when they should not be. It really makes no sense for only one or two police personnel to be at a station at any one time during the day, much less in the night, because they will surely be overrun by the criminal elements. One of the commissioner's first acts should be for him to impress on the Government the need for a more rigorous recruitment drive for police and soldiers so that these stations can be properly manned, and more efficient policing can be offered.

For the time being, I feel that soldiers should be deployed with available police personnel to man these stations and even as a short-term measure, surveillance cameras should be deployed at police stations in critical areas to monitor incoming and outgoing individuals. In my opinion, for the police to effectively man those areas from which the stations will be removed it would need a 24-hour, minute by minute patrolling up and down the streets of these areas, and no police force in the world has that kind of man power or the resources needed to do this.

Please rethink Mr. Commissioner, because Jamaica cannot afford for you to fail.

I am, etc.,

DUDLEY A. BROWN

27A Beechwood Avenue

Kingston 5