Support for Patterson’s idea for a civilian oversight body
Published:Friday | January 25, 2019 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Mr PJ Patterson’s idea of a civilian oversight body similar to EPOC but having legislative support, is a good one. Indeed, as a people, we need to grow past looking at everything through partisan lenses and also through “would-have-could-have-should-have” eyes at every suggestion to move us forward.
I, for one, expect to hear and see vigorous debate against this basic concept, for if it works as we need it to, those – even in civil society – who make crime their business could be put out of business. And that is what the rest of us want.
The time has long passed that we should be making reference to our over 200 named gangs as if they have a place in modern society. Also, our prison ‘rehab’ system needs urgent overhaul. Countries that are serious about curbing crime and reforming the incarcerated cannot support having friends and relatives visiting and taking clothes and food as we do here and also causing the incarcerated to have so much influence on society as if they were on some vacation.
That’s part of the reason our incarceration and so-called rehabilitation are seen as big jokes by certain “career criminals”. By the time they leave prison, the incarcerated should be tired (from the hard labour of breaking stones), longing to see their acquaintances, and changed for the better.
This oversight body would be tasked to urgently reform the police service, possibly by, among other things, tweaking INDECOM but also giving that unit more power, for the force, as we currently have it, is an important part of our crime problem.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
This new body should also have some amount of jurisdiction over our emergency response teams (fire and ambulance services). Every fire station, for example, should have a small panel van that can arrive at accident locations more quickly than the fire truck. The response of these services need a central coordinator, which the oversight body could provide.
Finally, it would be a great joy to know that we have a security policy that is itself secure from political football as occurs at present. Thankfully, the gangs have, by and large, stayed out of the political fray, and we need to have a body with policies that transcend electoral cycles, policies that are not keen on being politically correct in order to secure votes.
To borrow from a quote by William J. Clinton, “There is nothing wrong with Jamaica that cannot be fixed by what is right in Jamaica”, but careful monitoring is paramount.
Lerroy Brown