The Editor, Sir:

The following are the main reasons why I do not think the likeable Derrick Smith should have been changed for Colonel Trevor MacMillan. I only hope for the nation that he does not behave like a commissioner of police, which is difficult for him not to do, and accept that we have an able and academically qualified commissioner in the person of Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin.

The best thing he could do for the force and the country is to secure finance to support the requisitions of the commissioner; and this may be difficult, as in the case of his predecessors, because of budgetary constraints and wrong priorities of succeeding governments.

Wrong focus

As one who has had about 55 years in the justice system, including 11 years and two months as a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, working out of the Clarendon Police Divisional Headquarters, the Cross Roads Criminal Investigation Division (CID), the Chapelton CID and the Manchester CID headquarters, and as a student steeped in constitutional law, I must draw the irresistible conclusion that succeeding governments and the public have been wrong in focusing on ministers of security in the solution of crimes.

Ministers are not professionals

The focus must be on the operations of the police force or, must I say, forces, because today, there are the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) - unlawfully operating, I think - as parallel forces, because the ISCF was created as an auxiliary to the JCF and not to be parallel.

In the context of the foregoing, ministers are politicians, they are not professionals, even though from a constitutional standpoint, the buck stops with the Government. Its duty is to provide for an efficient and effective police force through budgetary provisions which facilitate proper working conditions, training underpinned by discipline, and the highest degree of specialisation and assignment of members in proportion to, for example, the number of reported murders. The buck for all practical purposes stops with the Police High Command. In other words, policy is only complementary to operation.

What about budgetary support?

However, out of my experience, not only as one who has been in charge, but one who has been successful in the trenches, it was my personal commitment and the dedication of men like Reneto Adams, and many others, that in the final analysis affect the bottom line of crime detection. Today, with the increase both in population and violent crimes in particular, it cannot be denied that budgetary support must be the main focus and not the change of minister or even the importation of foreign policemen. Importing these policemen is not only demoralising, but is like taking coal to Newcastle because I do not see anybody in Britain, for example, smart like Jamaicans.

Having said all this, I can justify the importation of a policeman to deal with corruption since there will be a reasonable presumption that he is not contaminated.

I am, etc.,

OWEN S. CROSBIE

Barrister-at-law

Former detective and clerk of courts