GREEN ISLAND, Hanover — Though he has promoted thousands of cops since he took the helm of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake wants to see more cops at officer level.

“Since I took office in March last year, we have promoted close to 1,300 persons from all ranks,” Blake told delegates in attendance at Jamaica Police Federation’s 82nd Annual Joint Central Conference at the Princess Hotel in Green Island, on Tuesday.

He explained the benefits of having members of the JCF move up the ranks.

“Whilst one of the spin-offs of a promotion is motivation, that’s not the primary role of promotion. It is to improve supervision. Currently, we operate with a very small supervisory group within our establishment, and we have gotten a commitment from the Minister [of National Security Dr Horace Chang] that we need to have a lot more supervisors. So we need to expand the different ranks,” said Blake.

In stressing the need for the increase, he referenced what obtains in the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).

“We have a very small officer corps. I think the JDF’s officer corps is more than twice the size of ours when they were less than a third of the [JCF]. And so we got the commitment from the minister again to increase, I think the officer corps is something like 2.4 per cent of the entire establishment. That’s pretty small,” the commissioner emphasised.

Blake promised that the JCF will never return to the days when its members operated in numerous unfilled posts without proper compensation. He pointed out that for almost 1,300 promotions to be made, there had to have been more than that number of available posts.

“You know what an available post means? When there’s a post for a deputy commissioner that is vacant, do you think that deputy commissioner’s role is not carried out? When there’s a post for a corporal, somebody’s filling that role, somebody’s doing that job. And so it is important that we never get back to a point where there are so many available vacant posts and expect the world from the members when the remuneration is not there. So we not going back there,” he vowed.

During his speech, Blake lauded the five area commanders and 19 divisional commanders for their role in the promotion of nearly 1,300 officers.

“I must say that the promotions that I’ve seen are celebrated, meaning the right persons are being promoted. And I must commend you for that,” he said.

The commissioner also praised law enforcers for improved public interactions, noting increased commendations from citizens. However, he expressed concern over a few troubling incidents.

“We can’t be promoting people, getting supervisors in place, and at the same time we have constables doing what they feel like doing, and interacting with your citizens and our customers in a way that is not befitting at the organisation. And so we need to be mindful of that,” he urged.