Online feedback

Below are edited excerpts from comments posted online at www.jamaica-gleaner.com by readers reacting to yesterday's lead story 'Are you being served? Many stations still not equipped to respond to calls'.

Value in community policing

There are negatives to this that are not mentioned. Police response from outside of a community will not be aware of the local issues and will not be known by the locals, which can hamper investigations and create response conflict.

However, there are also positives. In cases where the local cops are not trusted by the community, whether for corruption or brutality, a new face can be more welcome and the responders may not carry the 'baggage' of current conflicts between local police and community.

Generally speaking, the principle of community-based policing requires local police to deal with problems in partnership with the community and other service providers.

As a police officer in Jamaica many years ago, I led many patrols from Mobile Reserve to communities that were experiencing major crimes. For obvious reasons, these patrols were most effective when a local police officer accompanied us on these patrols.

Rick B

Lack of management skills

Surely, leadership and managing skills are lacking in this situation; a study is not needed to know that for effectively policing any area. Most of the available resources should be allocated where the needs are greatest. What is the purpose of this study? First, it shows that the study is a substitute for immediate action and the wasting of resources. Second, it justifies the existence of the department and the personnel that are doing the research.

The information used to enter Tivoli could be got from local maps of the area, people on the ground and from police information on the area. Also, the statistics given out by the department doing the study came from the police.

Lenny

Policing is stressful

The human data collection methods, in this case geographical informatics, will provide some clue to operational effects after the act or the fact but never prior. Policing is not hard work, but it is a stressful occupation that demands workers, workflow and workplace management to pre-empt, prevent and to control. Any act that escaped that networking arrangement will become easy to apprehend and contain.

Bucsie