Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

Police Federation chairman, Corporal Raymond Wilson, is calling on government to honour a commitment to provide special housing and educational benefits for the dependants of police personnel killed on the job, which, he said, was made by former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson six years ago at the 2000 police federation conference in Ocho Rios.

"The Honourable P.J. Patterson proclaimed then that dependants of every policeman or woman killed on the job as of that day would benefit from a National Housing Trust (NHT) unit free of cost," said Cpl. Wilson. "He (Mr. Patterson) also said, where police personnel occupied any house under an NHT arrangement at the time of death, dependants would be relieved of all payment obligation.

Deliver on commitments

"To date, none of these commitments has been delivered," said Cpl. Wilson, declaring that the promised benefits were separate from the death benefits paid to dependants and the Ministry of National Security's scholarship programme for tertiary studies.

"We are beseeching the government to deliver on these commitments."

When the NHT was contacted for a comment, officials told The Sunday Gleaner that no such arrangement had ever been implemented, but none of the officials spoken to were willing to offer a comment on the record.

Pointing to other areas in which promises were reportedly made to the police federation but not kept, Cpl. Wilson said that "Mr. Patterson also proclaimed that for every policeman or women killed on the job as of that day, one million dollars would be placed in a fund specifically for the provision of further education for their children. (But) that has not happened either."

Structure work week

Cpl. Wilson made the disclosures during last Sunday's funeral service for Constable Dawn Lewis, who was killed when the service vehicle she was driving crashed in Bog Walk, St. Catherine, in late September,

He said the deceased had just completed a double shift when she was sent on the ill-fated assignment. Cpl. Wilson said the federation would not relent in its quest for a structured 40-hour workweek for police personnel.

"As we diligently await the implementation of a structured 40 hour workweek system, I can assure you that this federation will not rest until this becomes a reality," Cpl. Wilson stated.