John Myers Jr.,
Staff Reporter THE POLICE Federation and the Police Officers' Association (POA) remain neutral on the Government's proposal to recruit police officers from overseas until they meet with Dr. Peter Phillips, Minister of National Security later this week when the matter will be discussed.
Both Inspector Handel Morgan, chairman of the Police Federation and Senior Superintendent Leon Rose, chairman of the POA, refused to state an official position on the matter when contacted. According to SSP. Rose, "I cannot give an informed opinion or make an informed comment just now because we have not met as a body, in fact, we have not even seen the minister's statement, I don't know the context in which it was made." Inspector Morgan said "We are unable to speak from an informed position in relation to the issue of the employment of foreign cops due to the unavailablity of sufficient information."
"It has not been officially presented to us but we are scheduled to have a meeting with the minister and I suppose that would be an item for discussion," Inspector Morgan added.
In the meantime, David Purdy, law enforcement
advisor to the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), is urging the Government to carefully consider the proposal before recruiting foreigners to work in the JCF.
LEARNING CURVE
While he endorsed the idea, Mr. Purdy, in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner, noted "There's wisdom to going out and bringing in others, but there's a learning curve also that has to be added to the feature. People who are totally unfamiliar with the culture will struggle at the beginning and will have acceptance problems when they first come online. So that's an issue that has to be dealt with."
The law enforcement expert pointed out "There's a reality check when you come to Jamaica, when you look at the pay equivalent, the equipment, the working conditions. Some of the stations are
in deplorable conditions
and need to be fixed. (Furthermore) the country is severely challenged financially, to bring in somebody who has worked in the United States or the United Kingdom under a different set of standards, they might not be happy police officers here and may not stay, so you might lose some of your investment there."
