MONTEGO BAY, St James – Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips yesterday said low pay is the biggest negative keeping qualified men from joining the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

Dr Phillips said the security force has had difficulties recruiting able personnel to boost its membership from 8,500 to the required complement of 12,000 members. He made the disclosure Wednesday evening at a symposium hosted by the Cornwall Bar Association in Montego Bay.

“…The truth is that we are not going to attract the numbers that we need, and the quality that we need unless we fundamentally look at the whole structure of pay and reward and conditions of service within the organisation,” said Dr Phillips who was guest speaker at the function.

The minister was, however, quick to point out that the force was bombarded with applications from university graduates for posts that offered better salary packages. The force currently has a graduate entry programme, under which holders of degrees are fast-tracked. Upon successfully completing training at the police staff college in Twickenham Park, these candidates graduate at the rank of assistant superintendent.

“I know that the JCF is having a difficulty attracting qualified numbers of males, in particular, which is reflective of other things happening in the society,” the minister emphasised.

Speaking on the topic ‘The Role of the Constabulary Force in the Changing Society’, Dr Phillips stressed that the force was moving significantly away from the “colonial paradigm of policing to modern policing”.

“Putting it in crude terms, the colonial paradigm emphasises brawn over brains… that model of crime fighting is dead and gone and cannot come back,” he said.

Modern policing, the minister argued, required the application of brain power combined with the appropriate technologies to apprehend and punish criminals.

“And to do that you need highly trained, skilled personnel who are not predisposesd to excessive use of force,” the minister said.