Benjamin
Barbara Ellington, Senior Gleaner Writer
THE CALLS by Scotiabank Jamaica's Managing Director William 'Bill' Clarke for the dismantling and subsequent rebuilding of the security forces, has been met with mixed responses.
Among those who disagree with Mr. Clarke's views is Kenneth Benjamin, chairman of the Guardsman Group of Companies. He said, in an interview with The Gleaner, that what we need is zero tolerance towards crime.
Mr. Benjamin argued that, rather than seek to dismantle the forces or make new laws, why not declare zero tolerance on crimes such as drug smuggling and make our present laws work?
"Our laws need to be enforced and managed, we have several good laws that only need to be implemented. I support and agree with the Kingfish initiatives and government policy to clamp down on the drug trade. It has fuelled and financed a lot of the crime today, but government should go a step further and declare zero tolerance on this drug scourge," the security firm chief said.
Mr. Benjamin explained that many members of the present Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) could be freed up to do serious crime-fighting. He said there was no country in the world with enough military and police to supply all their security needs.
"The more we expand economic activity, the more we will need private security firms to help. At Scotland Yard, well trained security guards are used to guard their offices because it's not worth deploying their highly trained agents to do this," Mr. Benjamin told The Gleaner.
He said that at our police stations, trained officers in uniform sit behind desks just to renew firearm licences and many do clerical and administrative work when these functions could be done by civilians trained to understand the process, in the same way that government released them (police), from doing the work of immigration personnel.
"We don't need policemen and women to direct traffic, we need traffic wardens; if a security company can transport billions of dollars every year, why can't it move prisoners from a jail to a courthouse?" Benjamin asked. "We don't need the police to guard jails, we need highly trained security guards, so instead of dismantling the police force, we need to utilise what we have more efficiently and manage it better."
