Police Service needs civilian corps

This is the kind of simple oversight that bedevils, not only the Police Service, but many State institutions. It was only a few weeks ago that National Security Minister Martin Joseph was boasting that his Ministry has more than enough money to fund every needed measure to control crime. And, sure enough, the initiative plus the $40 million were found to buy the blimp skyship. Yet a basic procedure like insuring the police fleet has apparently presented great difficulties.

This kind of inefficiency surely demoralises further an already demoralised group. Policing is dangerous work, and a lack of proper insurance sends a message to the officers that their superiors do not care for their welfare. It also adds to the stress that officers function under daily, since they cannot be sure they will be taken care of if they are injured in the line of duty in a manner that is not specifically covered by the insurance they do have.

However, this is only one instance of an ill that poor management has created in the Service. For decades now, there has been a recommendation that all clerical and specific managerial matters should be given over to a civilian staff. This would automatically increase the manpower available to do law enforcement duties.

Yet successive administrations have been unable to implement this measure. To be sure, the Police Service itself is partly to blame for this. While officers want to be relieved of clerical and managerial duties, at the same time they do not want any civilians to have authority over them.

But they can’t eat their cake and have it, too. It is quite true that a civilian staff in the Police Service would lead to a separation of powers, as well as a different hierarchy of authority. But, given the abuses of power that are common in the Service, as well as the inability of so many officers to deal with citizens in a polite and pleasant manner, a civilian staff may well be a key component to an improved Police Service.

Such a staff would certainly have responsibility for basics like insurance, vehicle maintenance and station repairs, record-keeping, even the rostering of officers. Corporal Neptune also pointed to the duplication of job specifications as an issue which had stretched the Service thin. An effective managerial cadre would help deal with such matters and, if properly constituted, also form an effective buffer and conduit between the Police Service, the Police Commissioner, and the Cabinet. But that is perhaps a reason why the political directorates have not moved to implement this measure. What the interested parties need to bear in mind, however, is that the creation of a civilian corps in the Police Service is essential to improving the Service. In the long run, that can only redound to the benefit of police officers, politicians and, most importantly, ordinary citizens.

The last thing we want at this time of high crime is to hear that policemen are refusing to drive police cars because of the lack of insurance coverage.