Orville Taylor | Rowe the boat gently, Federation, please

Say all you want about the customer being always right; that is one of the stupidest clichés we can possibly have in industries which provide service. You cannot muzzle the ox which is grinding the grain and certainly you cannot push the grass cart before the ass.

Speaking of asses, we know that Lord Denning said that the law is one of those creatures. But did you know that the French name for a ‘sleeping policeman’ is back of an ass ( dos d’ane)? So, there might be a hidden message here; ride the back of the law enforcer while he is asleep on the job. However, know this; a poorly treated constabulary cannot be expected to treat the public right and, certainly, effectively fight crime.

Apparently only the E at the end of his surname is silent but Sergeant Patrae Rowe, chairman of the Jamaica Police Federation, has paddled publicly his boat upstream, supporting the commissioner but vilifying the layer of management which directly supervises him in his substantive post.

As a sub-officer, only inspectors are above him among the rank and file. Indeed, the cadre of sergeants is the largest number of supervisors in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). What this means is that around 10,000 or so members of the JCF look up to him for leadership; while everybody between the commissioner and himself, which includes those who will recommend him for promotion and interview him for advancement, are looking hard at him.

My first question for the chairman and those who elected and support him is, what is to be achieved for the Force and its members when he takes to the public grievances, which can be addressed through dialogue and with the full force of his collective bargaining ability?

In a very open commentary in this newspaper on Tuesday, he praised the commissioner and seemed to give him his unflinching support, describing him as “a good fit”.

Yet, in the same breath, he stripped the officer corps, alleging about punitive transfers and other acts of victimisation. For him, “There are serious instances of mismanagement of human resources and abuse of rank and file members ... The lack of ingenuity and concern from a lot of our senior managers …has left critical human resources worn and demotivated.”

Inasmuch as this might be true, he who asserts must prove. Part of his solution is for dead weight officers to be “retired in the public interest and replaced with officers with strong leadership qualities”. His broad-brush statement that “bad officers are not leaving” is unfortunate because he and many others have shown no indication of stepping away either.

He justifiably baulks about lower recruitment and training standards, promotion, conditions of work, welfare and many other issues like a good trade unionist should. Many of these misgivings resound very deeply with me. Moreover, the JCF must be seen as a difficult but yet enticing career path.

Some of the areas are directly outside of his remit. However, under the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA), he does have locus standi to have disputes over the employment, non-employment, (non) allocation of work dismissal or suspension of any worker, within or outside of the bargaining unit of workers that he represents.

Still, it is a brave analyst who would think that a subordinate, despite his external qualifications, would have the necessary tools to determine that his superiors are competent or otherwise.

Simply put, Rowe stuck his neck very far out when he declared to the nation that as a sergeant of police, he is so qualified as to make astute judgements and evaluations of his senior officers, whose jobs he can only imagine or aspire to perform. It is the equivalent of a junior doctor or nurse with graduate qualifications in a medical related field assessing the performance of the senior surgeons.

Nonetheless, there are things which Rowe and other chairmen of both the Federation and the erstwhile Special Constabulary Force Association have jurisdiction, responsibility and perhaps blame. Yes, BLAME!

WRONG PRIORITIES

As with ALL the other trade unions, the labour movement has been short-sighted. For the last 15 years of my attending, chairing and speaking at the police conferences and the more than 20 years in a ringside seat, I have been pushing the negotiators to ask for better welfare treatment as part of their collective bargaining process.

It is old news that police officers have shorter life expectancies, and indeed, there are parts of their bodies which predecease them. Lifestyle diseases are over-represented among police officers, and men in particular. Worse, after retirement very few of them can maintain a proper livelihood.

On top of that, given the high violence against police rate in this country, the federation has dropped the ball, and maybe more than one, on the subject of officers hurt or killed while ‘on duty’. By now, the constabulary should have already a clear position from Government where police officers are killed by criminal elements. A strident and responsive federation should have locked government into an agreement or statute where it has to be proven that a murdered police officer was acting unlawfully.

In fact, if the federation had spent less time chasing after five and 15 per cent increases and internal power struggles, it would have made certain that there is post-service insurance and other benefits because the malice which criminals have towards crime-fighters does not retire with them.

A progressive federation should’ve long ago kept terminal benefits for retirees and others discharged honourably on the front burner. Police officers should have had robust post-service health insurance and a semi-contributory fund which prevents them from living like paupers after risking their lives, families and everything for this country.

These are some of the reasons why good police officers do not stay, because they see no future after they ‘lef di wuk’.

There are many logical and workable low-hanging fruits to encourage the ‘canine gonads’ to remain after enlisting.

How much will we have solved, however, when we launder the soiled steel drawers in full view of the anti-police citizens?

- Dr Orville Taylor is head of the Department of Sociology at the UWI, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com