Dear Editor,
I wish to congratulate the commissioner of police, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, on the professional job that he has been doing since being appointed.

A number of corrupt police cops have been interdicted and sent on leave while he has taken a no-nonsense approach to corruption and unprofessionalism within the Jamaica Constabulary Force, which is extremely commendable.

He has also taken the correct decision to withdraw the M-16 rifle from the general population of the members of the force and replace it with a less lethal firearm which is a good and practical decision indeed.

Those M16 rifles were causing too much damage and unnecessary death in far too many cases each year. It is very important and necessary for Commissioner Lewin to continue to weed out the corrupt cops from within the police force because they are causing too much damage to the reputation of the force and things were beginning to reach crisis proportions.

When we have a corrupt-free, professional, efficient, effective, reliable and competent police force, then the police force will be able to deal constructively and positively with the country's serious crime problems, which need to be dealt with urgently.

It is imperative that the intelligence arm of the force be adequately funded and staffed by the Government in order to allow the police force to diligently gather the well-needed intelligence to successfully tackle the country's serious murder and drug problems. Also, the Government must provide the necessary motor vehicles to the police force, because I am told by a senior police officer that the police force needs currently at least another 100 service vehicles to fill the current shortage.

So far, I am quite impressed with the performance of Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields and he is definitely doing an excellent job in his crime portfolio. He just needs more resources to upgrade his intelligence and capability department of the force to prevent some of the crimes that are taking place in the country.

The crime and murder problem will not go away all at once, and the Golding Administration cannot, at the wink of an eye or in just seven months, solve and prevent all those crimes that are taking place in the island.

During the 18 years that the PNP government was in office, over 20,000 murders took place. It got worse every month, so therefore, please be fair to the Golding Administration and give them a chance to address the crime and drug problems within the country.

Minister Smith is quite a capable and competent national security minister who is working tirelessly, relentlessly and assiduously behind the scenes so as to revamp and restructure the entire police force from a national security ministry framework.

Robert Dalley
beralley@hotmail.com

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