THE VALUE of an educated police force cannot be overrated. The unfortunate low threshold and concomitant pitiable compensation package for the personnel of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) have conspired consistently to preclude attracting Jamaica's best and brightest to law enforcement.

I recall that a few years ago, a requirement was made that in order to qualify for promotion to the rank of superintendent, the candidate must have a degree and its effective date was delayed for three years. This was a step in the right direction, but piecemeal rationalisation has never been a best practice. If there is no doubt as to the efficacy of a better-educated police force, one wonders why successive governments have not applied break-neck speed to remove it from the pipeline and into reality. We need not look farther than our Caribbean neighbours for unambiguous manifestations of the benefits to be redounded.

In a recent article in The STAR, the reporter highlighted the creation of the Minor Crimes Desk at the St Andrew Central Police Division, headed by Superintendent Terrence Bent, which has had significant success. I must confess that I am not certain whether this initiative is peculiar to his division, but in the very least appears consistent with Supt Bent's management style.

Appalling paucity

To the cursory observer, of which I am numbered, it is clear from his days as part of the Special Anti-Crime Task Force as a deputy superintendent and then moving on to various divisions and posts that his drive, diligence and dedication is not predicated just on experience, but education. Supt Bent should be the rule and not the exception.

It is indisputable that there are other bright, intelligent and educated police officers in the JCF, but the paucity is appalling. In order to defeat crime and belittle violence, it cannot be accomplished with the many well-thinking, overworked and underpaid police officers. I find it equally perturbing that police officers with low-educational achievements should clamour so loudly for a compensation package consistent with university graduates. While I am not disillusioned by the benefits of a university education, it is hardly credible to suggest or even to countenance that those who achieve so little would or should expect so much.

I am, etc.,

R.R. REGINALD REID

rrreginaldreid@gmail.com

Faculty of Law

UWI, Mona