Weeding out the corrupt officers

THE EDITOR: The lives of officers of the protective services are at risk daily. There should be higher salaries than what are presently paid. It is the one area where money must always be found as the fancy equipment cannot be eaten or saved in the bank. But there must be no room for weeds of corruption within the services.

Anyone, from designated farmer to householder with a little garden, knows they have to remove weeds the minute they spot them. The same must be done for corrupt officers. No removal with a full salary pending enquiry should be entertained.

Officers believed to be involved in corruption should be immediately pulled out and placed on a fixed stipend until the matter can be tried in a court of law. Harsh? Undemocratic? What about their family commitments? Nobody asks the weeds if they are good or bad weeds.

However, there needs to be a special court for fast-tracking complaints. The court must deal with officer complaints within six months. On expulsion the officer will have no entitlements beyond three months of their salary at the time they signed on.

All applicants for protective services positions should be informed of the harshness of their plight if sufficient suspicion of corrupt practice is demonstrated. It will be a case of the money or the life of fiscal comfort if they stray off the straight and narrow path of service to the public.

Higher salaries and harsher conditions for bad behaviour should see the recruitment of better officers.

Dare I say that there should be no trade union activity within the ranks? Striking will be outlawed as it prevents proper service to the public.

The protective services should have their own court of appeal comprising senior officers from all the various branches of the services.

All applicants must unequivocally understand, before they sign up, that the public must be honestly served to the best of their ability. They are either in or they are out.

All the weed cannot always be caught but neither should they be encouraged to grow.

LYNETTE JOSEPH, Diego Martin