It is now his­to­ry that Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Dwayne Gibbs and his deputy Jack Ewats­ki have ten­dered their res­ig­na­tions from the Po­lice Ser­vice. The Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion needs to get it right this time around. It has about six months to se­lect some­one who can re­al­ly make a dif­fer­ence in the fight against crime.

Here are some ques­tions that prospec­tive can­di­dates for the post of Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice must an­swer con­fi­dent­ly be­fore they could be giv­en the nod:

• What ini­tia­tives have you suc­cess­ful­ly im­ple­ment­ed to re­duce gang vi­o­lence in your coun­try?

• How would you build a strong re­la­tion­ship be­tween the po­lice and the pop­u­la­tion?

• What meth­ods would you put in place to re­duce po­lice cor­rup­tion?

• The "bro­ken win­dows the­o­ry" states that if pet­ty crime is not dealt with, crime will in­crease. Based on that the­o­ry, what pro­grammes would you put in place to re­duce pet­ty crimes?

• How would you en­sure that the po­lice equip­ment is up to date and re­li­able?

• Some be­lieve that the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice is de­mor­alised, un­der­staffed, un­der­trained, mis­trust­ed by the civil­ian pop­u­la­tion. How would you as com­mis­sion­er turn the for­tunes of the ser­vice around?

• The mur­der rate is out of con­trol in this coun­try. Why would you want to take on such a her­culean task?

I have a per­son in mind who has ful­filled all of the above cri­te­ria. He is by no means a spring chick­en and he is not a lo­cal. The crime prob­lem is be­yond the ca­pa­bil­i­ties and com­pe­tence of a lo­cal. Let us get re­al here. This is one time I am not go­ing to buy lo­cal.

All I am at lib­er­ty to say is he was once of­fered the post of com­mis­sion­er of Lon­don but was re­fused be­cause he is an Amer­i­can. He now works as an ad­vis­er to the present po­lice chief in Lon­don. He has an out­stand­ing re­sume of re­sults, hav­ing worked as head of the Los An­ge­les, New York and Boston Po­lice De­part­ments. He is an ac­tion man. Jack Warn­er should work very well with him.

John Jes­samy

Fyz­abad