A worthy offer, Commissioner Lewin

Saturday, November 21, 2009 8:57 AM

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Editorials

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The proposal by Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin to employ public sector employees who will be displaced when the Government cuts civil service jobs makes good sense.

It suggests that Commissioner Lewin has given a lot of thought to the manpower needs of the police force, as well as how he, as the head of the Constabulary, intends to fulfil those needs.

As reported in yesterday's Daily Observer, Commissioner Lewin - at his news conference last week - expressed the hope that civil servants who would be displaced by the upcoming restructuring of the public sector, would consider transferring their skills to new careers in the police force.

"The police can help with some of the relocation. I am looking forward to receiving as many qualified civil servants who may be relocated from ministries in order to ramp up my civilianisation process," he is reported as saying.

The commissioner's plan is to employ civilians for mostly office jobs so he can deploy more trained policemen and women on the streets. Mr Lewin, recognising its value, is rightly seeking to have it fast-tracked, as the view among the top brass of the Constabulary is that trained cops should be utilising their skills where they are most needed - on the streets.

So Commissioner Lewin has told us that he can take several hundred workers, and has even gone further to invite applications from those who are qualified and would want to serve as police officers.

We hope that the commissioner's invitation will be accepted by those who are indeed qualified to serve in that capacity, because the police force is in dire need of more men and women of strong character, who are respectful of human rights and who are just plain decent human beings with a desire to serve their country.

Our one disappointment with the civilianisation programme thus far is the snail's pace at which it is being implemented. We accept that the verification of job descriptions is important in order for the programme to move forward.

However, the reality is that this proposal for a civilianisation programme was put forward and accepted some years ago. In fact, it started gathering steam during the tenure of Mr Lewin's predecessor, Commissioner Lucius Thomas. There are now 10 civilians employed to the Crime Stop operations section of the police force, but that's nothing to write home about.

Hopefully, the people with the task of completing the verification process will treat it with the importance and urgency it deserves, so that when the job cuts are made, those so inclined to seek employment in the Constabulary can be interviewed and receive responses quickly in order that they may get on with their lives.

We humbly suggest that in addition to the desk jobs that have been made available in the police force, employment could be created for young, bright scientists in the area of forensics, which has been taking on added importance of late in the Constabulary.

As it now stands, the majority of people in the Forensics Unit of the Major Investigation Taskforce are policemen and women. It can only redound to the benefit of our crime-fighting efforts if those highly trained cops work alongside qualified forensic scientists.

It is done, and successfully, in other jurisdictions. It can be done here.

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