My choice for commissioner

THE EDITOR: While parliamentarians haggle over the procedure for selecting a Commissioner of Police, as a law-abiding citizen I am concerned about the quality of policing under the head honcho. With each successive CoP we are supposed to be getting incrementally better at securing the State and curbing crime. This is particularly true if the best minds are choosing law enforcement over joining the underworld.

Going back to the tenure of the Canadian Dwayne Gibbs who shared his policing experience with TT, if I remember rightly he was on the verge of getting all officers on the street, letting civilians do the office work and putting radios in police vehicles so that the whereabouts of officers could be determined at any point in time.

Forgive me if my memory fails me, but I cannot remember Gibbs requesting more compensation, more luxury vehicles and more sophisticated weapons. The resources he had at his disposal were destined to be efficiently managed. The new brand he offered was too strict for the government of the day, for it threatened to ruffle some feathers and could not secure the co-operation of key stakeholders so that there would be no need for a Police Complaints Authority.

The experience of the Canadian was above and beyond what was needed to fix TT. His approach was to manage people to keep citizens safe from delinquents.

Today, after 21 commissioners, the service still has too much unfinished business and demands that do not justify the quality of service that shows no sign of improving.

The script for the CoP has no ambiguity and does not need someone with an inflated ego to execute. What we do need is value for money. The person must be able to:

* Train/retrain officers and put systems in place to detect their unsuitability when their competence wanes.

* Use more up-to-date polygraph testing to weed out the criminal elements in the service.

* Account for funds allocated to the police.

* Manage vehicles, fitting them with GPS and having proper maintenance and repairs to ensure they are in service for at least five years and not quickly consigned to a graveyard before that lifespan.

* Enforce the use of body cameras to ascertain the truthfulness of encounters with the public.

* Push for the DNA of all officers and eventually the rest of the public to be placed in a data bank to be used in crime detection.

* Guarantee that requests for more up-to-date equipment must be computer software – not guns – to track and dismantle the underworld.

* Protect the public from the irresponsible use of tasers and pepper spray.

* Sensitise the public on its rights in the unscrupulous execution of warrants and improper police identification.

* Undertake scientific study to determine why the citizenry will gravitate to crime before a method is adopted to curb it.

The commissioner must be able to evaluate performance based on the bucket list and not just manipulate statistics gathered from some nefarious survey.

Guess who has my vote for commissioner.

LENNOX FRANCIS

via e-mail