No to CoP's 'master plan'

THE EDITOR: To say that I am disappointed in the new CoP’s master plan to make us a nation of "informants" is an understatement. The nation has waited for six years and more, only to be given an old ineffective plan.

This is not the new imaginative innovative plan of action that was being promised by the new incumbent all along and has always being an option to the public.

This "call in" plan has limited value and has been shown to be so in the past. The other side of this brass coin is, a personal hot-line has been offered with a promise of confidentiality. This is telling us that only the CoP can be trusted in the entire service. This cannot be good for overall morale, I am sure. I thought the idea was to project the trustworthiness of the entire service and not only one man.

Have we waited so long for a one-man show? This is not what was promised.

Is the Police Service and the nation as a whole prepared for the backlash to this "informants" plan? We all know how the criminal element deals with informants. Is our objective to reduce or increase the murder toll? Trinidadians are not fools, we’ve been there and done that.

If this is the best the new COP can come up with as his first initiative as a master plan, then I am sorry for the outlook for crime reduction in this country. Mr Commissioner, please come up with something better than that if you want to inspire confidence in the public.

Joel Quintal via e-mail