Pastor urges cops to uphold moral principles

Christopher Thomas, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

The police have been admonished to maintain strong moral conduct despite the wave of corruption sweeping Jamaica.

The charge came from the Reverend Conrad Pitkin, senior pastor of the Montego Bay-based Faith Temple Assembly of God, during a graduation exercise at Burchell Baptist Church for 32 corporals who participated in a development training course.

"Your commencement exercise comes in a time when in this parish, there are some interesting developments. The environment in which we live and work makes it very challenging to develop and to maintain strong ethical principles in our respective professions," remarked Pitkin.

"Every profession should have moral principles by which it is guided. Every individual should develop for himself a set of ethical codes that will guide you as an individual in the profession in which you operate. It serves as a perimeter, a compass to guide you in whatever you are going to do as a professional, as someone in the police force."

FOUR-WEEK PROGRAMME

Members of the Jamaica Consta-bulary Force and the Island Special Constabulary Force from Trelawny, St James, Hanover, and Westmore-land participated in the four-week programme. They were exposed to case-file preparation, report writing, records management, and community-based policing skills.

"Jamaica is facing a moral storm, and you are almost in the eye of it. Wherever you go, it is going to confront you," the pastor warned. "There are members of our society who are daring enough that they will want to purchase you, 'buy you out'."

Inspector Yvonne Powell of the Freeport Police Station in Montego Bay challenged the graduates to apply the techniques they had learned and share the knowledge with their colleagues.

"When you leave and go back to your various divisions, continue the networking, and everyone should be able to look at you [and] see a difference," she remarked.

CAPTION: Participants in a corporal-training police course perform a musical item during their graduation ceremony at the Burchell Baptist Church in Montego Bay, St James, on July 20. Thirty corporals from the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Island Special Constabulary Force were exposed to case-file preparation, report writing, records management, and community-based policing skills during the four-week course. - Photo by Christopher Thomas