Policemen afraid of the fire? Then get out!

THE EDITOR: This is a call to Mr Christopher Holder, President of the Police Second Division Welfare Association to withdraw the call to the members of his association to cease participating in joint patrols with members of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force. Mr Holder, the members of the Defence Force were assigned to assist the police in their duties. Your members by law work a maximum of 40 hours per week and for hours worked in excess of that maximum, they are paid overtime. Members of the Defence Force do not enjoy such benefits, they are required to be on duty as the exigencies of the service/country require.

Leave for them is not a right but a privilege. Do you remember the Honour Guard? Let the public know that your members were smiling all the way to the bank with hefty sums of overtime, while the members of the Defence Force worked excessively long hours without such benefit. Mr Holder, I do not have a brother, sister or wife in the police service, and as a consequence I cannot understand your point about putting the lives of your members in danger. Why did they join the police service? If they did not want to put their lives in danger, then they should have selected a less dangerous profession, maybe as kindergarten teachers. What is the meaning of your motto “To Protect and Serve” to your members? How do they intend to discharge that responsibility? Do you believe that your members have a responsibility to live up to that motto?

There should really be no necessity to have members of the Defence Force on the streets of Trinidad and Tobago assisting you to discharge your duties, if the perception of the public was that you were discharging your duties with alacrity and with efficiency. In these times, your association should be encouraging the members to be diligent, observant, honest and fair in dealing with the public so that we the public would learn to trust you. Warning citizens whom you are being paid to protect and serve of “more to come” seems as a threat to withhold your labour. Can a policeman strike? Let us know if your members can. By your utterances you are putting smiles on the faces of those persons who choose to break the law. They would now be encouraged to continue their lawless behaviour because your members would not be putting their lives in danger to protect and serve the public of Trinidad and Tobago.

Your association should rather be encouraging your members to perform their duties with excellence so that your demands for better equipment, better accommodation, suitable vehicles and better wages would find favour with the Ministry of National Security. The Minister of National Security would then readily champion your cause because your performance is one that he can hold up to public scrutiny. Can he do so now? Your association should not be making threats about withholding labour by whatever means, rather, your association should be assuring the country that you are determined to capture the perpetrators of crime and that you can produce the evidence to have them tried in the courts. The courts would do the rest based on the evidence you produce to have the perpetrators of crime pay. That is your job. Get your members to do their job. I daresay, that we the citizens do not perceive that you are discharging your duties for which you are being paid. If the police are afraid of the fire, then let them get out of the heat by resigning from the service. We need policemen in whom we can feel confident.

DONALD MOHAMMED
Lieutenant commander (Retired)
Port-of-Spain