Law en­force­ment stake­hold­ers in­clud­ing Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Mar­vin Gon­za­les have agreed with a pro­posed plan from Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young to "sim­pli­fy" the se­lec­tion process for a Com­mis­sion­er and Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.

Dur­ing the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment meet­ing in Sig­na­ture Hall, Ch­agua­nas, last week, Young said there was a need to in­tro­duce a more seam­less pro­ce­dure for the ap­point­ment of a leader for the TTPS.

"It is time we find a way to im­ple­ment a new ap­point­ment of a Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice that is a sim­pler process that finds the best fit not nec­es­sar­i­ly ris­ing through the ranks, but if you are the best per­son for the job, you get the job!

"We need the think­ing, we need the strat­e­gy."

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, Gon­za­les said he agreed with Young's calls, not­ing that such a change was nec­es­sary to en­hance the per­for­mance of the TTPS, de­scrib­ing the cur­rent arrange­ment as "messy and cum­ber­some."

Gon­za­les added that the pro­ce­dure was in ur­gent need of cor­rec­tion and could be taint­ed by po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence.

Re­fer­ring to Young's re­marks where the best can­di­date would not nec­es­sar­i­ly be the most se­nior of­fi­cer, Gon­za­les said such a de­ci­sion would re­quire changes in leg­is­la­tion.

"That has been the ob­jec­tive, but it was not achieved, there­fore we need to look at laws and there­fore we need to look at the se­lec­tion process and en­sure we get the best man­ag­er to man­age the po­lice ser­vice."

Pres­i­dent of the TTPS So­cial Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) act­ing ASP Gideon Dick­son said a change to the cur­rent arrange­ment would be in the best in­ter­est of po­lice of­fi­cers and the pub­lic, but said it would re­quire more in­de­pen­dence and strength to be giv­en to the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) as a body.

But while he agreed that there was a need for a change, Dick­son felt that the leader of the po­lice ser­vice should come from with­in the or­gan­i­sa­tion, re­fer­ring to Young's com­ments about find­ing the "best per­son for the job."

He ar­gued that in no oth­er arm of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty was a leader se­lect­ed from out­side of that agency, adding that it would be of­fen­sive to of­fi­cers who ded­i­cat­ed decades of their lives to the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

"We be­lieve the in­de­pen­dence of the Ser­vice Com­mis­sion ought to be giv­en more weight and more au­ton­o­my in se­lect­ing that per­son and this thing in re­la­tion to mat­ters hav­ing to go be­fore Par­lia­ment to be de­bat­ed up­on, for him or her to be se­lect­ed, that should not be part of the process.

"At every helm of all our in­sti­tu­tions, whether it is time for us to con­sid­er bring­ing some­one from the out­side to be the leader of whether it's the de­fence force, whether it's cus­toms and ex­cise, the Prime Min­is­ter

So stop mak­ing the po­lice ser­vice a soft tar­get. We have able-bod­ied, ed­u­cat­ed, in­no­v­a­tive thinkers with­in the rank and file of the TTPS."

How­ev­er, Dick­son main­tained that a Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er or DCP re­lied on the sup­port of their or­gan­i­sa­tion and oth­er stake­hold­ers to achieve suc­cess and urged those in au­thor­i­ty to avoid look­ing to these se­nior of­fi­cers for all the an­swers.

"Let us stop look­ing to say the leader will be the one to change every­thing. The leader is on­ly the in­flu­encer."

Re­spond­ing to Guardian Me­dia's ques­tions via email, crim­i­nol­o­gist and for­mer chair of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion Pro­fes­sor Ramesh De­osaran said he agreed with Young's calls for find­ing a prospec­tive Com­mis­sion­er who was best suit­ed for the job.

De­osaran de­scribed the cur­rent arrange­ment as be­ing a "mis­fit" sys­tem as it was not the most ef­fec­tive in find­ing best-qual­i­fied can­di­dates, not­ing that to fix the cur­rent mech­a­nisms po­lit­i­cal bias must be re­moved.

"The gov­ern­ment can­not re­al­ly fix the PSC sys­tem with­out re­mov­ing the pol­i­tics, that is, hav­ing the PSC list up for par­ti­san de­bate and fi­nal se­lec­tion in Par­lia­ment.

"That is a po­lit­i­cal con­t­a­m­i­na­tion from the start, as the coun­try has re­peat­ed­ly wit­nessed.

"That is why al­so the po­lit­i­cal­ly se­lect­ed Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice in Par­lia­ment does not get the full sup­port of the en­tire coun­try.

"That is why Prime Min­is­ter Young should re­view not on­ly the PSC se­lec­tion method but al­so the ex­ten­sive pow­ers of the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice with­out mean­ing­ful ac­count­abil­i­ty."

De­osaran al­so urged the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress to make its stance on a pos­si­ble change in the se­lec­tion process for a Com­mis­sion­er clear ahead of this month's gen­er­al elec­tions.

He warned that fail­ure to make clear their po­si­tion could give the im­pres­sion that the UNC was lack­ing in their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

He al­so felt that the PolSC should sub­mit its ranked list af­ter April 29.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed the PolSC for com­ment via email but did not re­ceive a re­sponse up to press time on Mon­day.