The recent judgement of the Court of Appeal in relation to the issue of police overtime is really worth a discussion.

It can be discussed under the headings of giving people false hope, a culture of not wanting police officers to earn middle-class wages, and lastly, a new beginning full of opportunities to end years of rubbish.

Let’s start with giving people false hope. My understanding is that the Police Federation signed an agreement for officers to receive pay for an additional 10 hours weekly in lieu of determining how much overtime is worked and by which individuals.

How then do you hope to win a case based on improper compensation?

Unions need to be cognisant of what they sign. If you negotiate and sign a bad deal, then you are stuck with it.

The disappointment within the ranks of the force is sad. This occurred not because of a bad court decision, but rather because of making a claim that was unwinnable from the outset.

Now let’s discuss the culture of keeping police officers poor.

Every politician who wants a ‘forward’ jumps on the rights of the workers. Why is no one arguing for the police to be highly paid agents of the State?

The country has consistently moved the minimum wage, pre-COVID, almost annually. This has resulted in an increase of 650 per cent over 20 years.

Police salaries in almost the same two decades have moved about 25 per cent — using the rural police force as a benchmark. This is because it is not popular politics to champion the cause of the police.

The majority of Jamaicans are poor, and most poor people do not like police officers. That is just a fact almost everywhere. Nobody likes being policed.

Poor people like it even less because they traditionally are not treated equally. Why is this? Because lawyers matter! If you can pay for good representation then you get a better shake from the system.

Now let’s talk opportunity. We can now fix the low-wage debacle, the issue of insufficient numbers of police officers on the ground, and finally, bring a logical solution to gang control over our country. How? At the very least we can step up police activity by 50 per cent by increasing the hours worked from 40 per week to 60 per week. This would move a force of 12,000 to a force of 18,000 in hours virtually speaking.

It would also move a constable’s salary to about $210,000 per month if you stop this allowance rubbish and just put it all on as basic salary. You also have to agree to not tax the overtime pay.

Does the pay seem high? ‘Bun yuh’, don’t?

Why does it bother you?

You wouldn’t mind if we hired an additional 6,000 cops and paid them chicken feed for 40 hours, would you?

It is a form of entrenched prejudice caused by a history of being taught to dislike your nation’s police officers.

This is no different from the entrenched racial hatred that is still common in many pockets of the United States against blacks, in India against Muslims, or in Pakistan against Hindus. It is taught to you from birth so you dislike without knowing why.

This is a golden opportunity to achieve police occupation of inner-city communities, whilst allowing police officers to earn a decent wage. Besides, what kind of job disallows overtime?It’s nonsensical.

Well, the reason that successive governments have stayed away from it is fear of corruption. So let’s address this.

Firstly, after 33 years in the security industry, I can tell you that corruption prevention is more about systems and less about relying on a person’s integrity.

So set parameters, ensure that it is so structured that it provides an opportunity for everyone, but for specific functions. Examples of these functions are crime scenes, high-risk occupation, and investigation.

This structuring may require a step away from total specialisation, and a participation in the much-needed occupation of the high-risk zones. So that office cop or traffic cop may have to draw a rifle and do some occupational duties as overtime if he is to benefit.

In situations where that may not be practical, such as with age and gender considerations, then persons can cover less hectic but necessary section duties to make the officer who can manage street duties available.

Remember, irrespective of the daily duties of a police officer, he’s still a police officer. Even if he’s one with a clipboard he can usually still carry a rifle at night.

This occupation will be the difference between taking control of inner-city communities, effectively ending gun domination, and continuing just like we are — vs sentencing generations of poor people to be ruled by animals. It is that simple.

You can use as many fancy words as you desire, pass any law, engage any international partner, buy as many cameras as you can hang.

It all comes to naught if you do not have control of the gang zones. You can only control them with boots on the ground.

Let me break down what I mean by ‘on the ground’. I mean in the squatter settlement, not on the road that is in front of it. I mean in the lane, on the roof, between the zinc fences.

To do this you need numbers. Anything else and you are sending police in there to die.

This new development is something I have recommended more than once. This is the opportunity to make it happen. For Christ sake, let’s seize it.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com