Acting Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington has endorsed a proposal to shorten the six-month basic training for police recruits, effective 2010.

"I feel that it can be shortened and would be very effective," Ellington, who assumed the job a month ago, told The Gleaner last week.

"For me, it is not about the length of time spent at the training school but the skills and competence that can be achieved by persons of a high standard," he added.

The top cop was speaking following the announcement by Bishop Gary Welsh, commandant of the Jamaica Police Academy.

"Come January, next year, we are getting 80 recruits who will be coming in with their laptops. They are requesting that the curriculum be place on CDs and said they intend to complete the training in half the time and, believe me, I am going to grant that request," said Welsh, who is in charge of day-to-day operations at the campus.

"I am going to be training on Saturdays, Sundays and at nights, if it's allowed. This is to facilitate a shorter period of time in training.

"There would also be an apprenticeship where, upon graduation, they would be given three months to learn on the job," Welsh said.

Welsh was addressing 24 members, who completed a 10-week training course at the Constabulary Staff College in Twickenham Park, St Catherine, last Thursday.

The graduates, who were drawn from the Island Special Constabulary Force, the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Royal Turks and Caicos Island Police Force, were implored to choose their company carefully in order not to bring the force, or themselves, into disrepute.

The course curriculum covered critical-crime management, money laundering and general supervisory procedures that would enable the participants to change the image of security forces.

Carolyn Gomes, head of Jamaicans for Justice, a human-rights lobby against state abuse, which has in the past criticised the capabilities of local police, declined to comment on the abbreviated training plan.

rasbert.turner@gleanerjm.com