ATTRACTING NON-ACHIEVERS

The high failure rate among the latest batch of police recruits — more than 50 percent — may have been largely a problem of selection and a lack of effective marketing in attracting better qualified young men and women to the Service. In turn, the entry requirements to the Service are too low, a bare step up from the time years ago, when all that was needed was a good primary school education, required height and a strong physique. And until the requirements are adjusted requests for applications for entry to the Police Service will continue to attract all too many who are non-achievers.

Crime as well as crime investigation with its increasing use of advanced technology is much more complex today than it was a decade or two ago, and there is the increasing need to woo to the Police Service individuals who can readily adapt to both modern crime detection and prevention techniques. The country’s protective services are no longer faced largely with petty crimes, housebreaking, robbery of the person or crimes of passion. Instead the drug trade, money laundering, internet crimes and high-tech corruption have made old methods of crime detection as outdated as the telegraph machine. For example, the drug trade, the successor to the contraband trade in whisky, leather and leather products from Venezuela, which flourished several decades ago, has required a new approach. Government recognises this, and on Wednesday Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced that state of the art radar equipment had been purchased from Israel in an effort to boost surveillance of Trinidad and Tobago coastlines. But this is only one aspect.

In turn, with money laundering et cetera, forensic science, long associated in Trinidad and Tobago with autopsies, is now understood even by the very young as a valued component in the fight against alleged corruption. For this country to continue to set entry levels to the Police Service at two or three CXC ‘O’ Level passes is to begin by limiting the potential of the Service. The time has long come when someone wishing to enter the Police Service should be required to have at least two Advanced Level passes. But because that would be too great a leap, then the minimum entry should be set at the CXC ‘O’ Level Certificate, including Maths and English. In addition, pay scales and benefits should be adjusted and arrangements for better financial packages put in place for Police officers obtaining relevant university degrees and tertiary education qualifications. Upward movement in the Police Service should be based on qualification and competence, and not on longevity. The country cannot battle high-tech crime with a low-tech approach.

There must be minimum tools demanded of entrants to the Police Service, otherwise the criminals will be better positioned to outwit the officers, even though the reverse should be true. Meanwhile, there should be effective marketing of careers in the Police Service to assist in attracting those who would be better motivated in making a choice. In addition to the above, there should be strategies developed for the placing of greater emphasis on positive Police interaction with the public. An ingredient in the solving of many crimes, even the most complex, still remains timely information from members of the public.