Ms Janine Omess, a first-year student of the University of Technology’s western Jamaica campus, made a noteworthy presentation about our police force at that institution’s second annual law and society conference in Montego Bay last Thursday.

According to Ms Omess, who researched the relationship between policing and crime reduction, there is evidence to suggest that in order to migrate from the mess we are in, it is necessary to transition from the largely discretionary watchman style of policing whereby the overall objective of maintaining public order takes precedence over law enforcement and professionalism.

Ms Omess didn’t, but this space feels constrained to cite the scandalous relationship between our police force, State and dons in order to make the point.

For surely we need look no further than this administration’s inexplicable dithering on the US’ extradition request for Mr Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke who is accused of arms and drug trafficking, or Ms Betty Ann Blaine’s stomach-churning information about dons holding inner-city teenaged girls as sex slaves, to understand how prone to corruption this form of policing really is.

No amount of mass police transfers, another of which was reported in yesterday’s edition of our sister title, will operate, within the context of this style of policing, to reduce crime in the long run.

Yes, increased police patrols will serve as a deterrent to some amount of crime.

We suppose this is part of the rationale behind the transfers.

However, unless we intend to pretend that we can leave our impossible-to-patrol inner cities out of the crime-solving equation, we are going to have to acknowledge the need to adopt a less discretionary style of policing that requires EVERYONE to comply with the law.

This is the legalistic style of policing that Ms Omess presented as the second step towards the ultimate service-style ideal which is enjoyed by healthy democracies in which law and order is the norm rather than the exception.

As a theory, this concept, like many others, seems simple enough.

It’s the practical application though that holds the Shakespearean rub.

For given the history of our last commissioner’s entry and exit, something tells us that neither the new and improved motorised patrol nor any other grouping of the Jamaica Constabulary Force will be enforcing the law against everyone under Acting Commissioner Owen Ellington.

Something tells us that the teenaged girl who is probably servicing the sexual demands of a don even as we write, is probably going to have just keep on doing so, pending the intervention of pregnancy, HIV/AIDS or any of the other deadly illnesses that attend her lifestyle.

Something tells us that Mr Coke is here to stay and that the consequences of this particular piece of folly will have to be shouldered by the rest of us who do not wield the influence that the citizens of his republic wield.

More’s the pity.