No hope, comfort with national security woes

It was eye-opening to learn that our police officers require just five GCE O’Level passes along with other social and anthropometric qualifiers to enter the service. After a candidate is screened he/she receives just six months of formal training at the St James Barracks, after which that person joins the ranks of the Police Service.

In the case of SRPs, it is my understanding that this group receives just two months of official training at Costatt. I am unaware as to whether there is any other formal training requirement or any programme of continuing professional development in the Police Service.

The bar for admission to the Prison Service is even lower than that of the Police Service. I could not find anything concerning the type or duration of training prison officers receive.

All of our national security institutions are certainly in a terrible state of disrepair today. While that is accepted, we hear nothing from the present Minister of National Security by way of policy innovation or policy change in the pipeline to improve the service through enhanced methods or systems of recruitment, training or continuing professional development.

Not only is the Minister of National Security silent on intended policies geared toward the evolution of an enhanced service, but the leader of the PNM Government has himself offered nothing in this regard.

Dr Keith Rowley has so far said nothing sensible about the state of the nation’s security. He continues with nonsensical layman’s chatter in the way of criticisms of the very services under his charge or engages in cynical rebuttal of those who criticise the ineptitude of his Government.

As a country we are daily descending into hitherto unheard of depths of barbarity and murderous criminality and those who are supposed to be “in charge” provide little or no comfort or hope. They too seem to be in need of guidance.

I am baffled that the present acting Police Commissioner can assert — if reports are correct — that the police have no locus standi to demand the release of surveillance camera footage at the IAM establishment since there is no “clear evidence that the girl went into IAM.” Might such footage not reveal how her body got there? There is an adage that says “garbage in, garbage out.” The only way that “garbage in” can yield anything but “garbage out” is through concerted and well-directed effort exerted upon the process of refining the “output”.

Every non-PNM government has started that process in far too many public institutions in this country than I care to recount. It has never gone beyond a promise by PNM administrations.

Each time such a process has been initiated by a government other than the PNM, the PNM reverts to the status quo on its return to power. It is comfortable with the incompetence it peddles and we relish the stagnation.

Steve Smith via email