Retired police officers urged to continue to share expertise

KINGSTON — Minister of National Security, Senator, Hon. Dwight Nelson, is urging retired police officers to continue to share their years of experience with the force, noting that they still have a lot to contribute.

“I want to ask that the tremendous aggregate of service and skills that you have among you not be lost in the passage of time, but that we can avail ourselves of your services and your skills, because you cannot throw out the old for the new. We have to create a synthesis of the experience and skills of the old together with the exuberance and the enthusiasm of the young,” he stated.

The Minister was addressing a luncheon held on June 8 at the Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, where more than 50 retired gazetted police officers were honoured for their distinguished service to the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and country.

The Security Minister also paid tribute to the spouses of the retired men and women for supporting them during their service in the force.

“When you are serving, we weren’t thinking about 40-hour work week, we didn’t think about that then. You had duties to perform and you performed your duties until you were too tired and had to be relieved. That is the kind of service that you gave and when you come home you always had a loving spouse to receive you,” he stated.

In his remarks, Commissioner of Police, Owen Ellington, informed that the JCF does engage the talent and expertise of retired police officers on a part time basis.

He said that if the budget permits “we will be engaging some of these officers to come back to assist because we do understand the value of their contribution especially at a time when they can do so without the distraction of normal day to day crime fighting that the rest of us are engaged in”.

Mr. Ellington told the retirees that they remain a part of a JCF family “which treasures your service in the past and we treasure your company and feedback into the future”.

Opposition Spokesperson on National Security, Peter Bunting, stated that Jamaicans “owe a debt of gratitude” to the retired men and women of the force.

He said he has been impressed with the calibre of leadership executed by the members of the JCF high command and by extension the divisional commanders.

By LATONYA LINTON, JIS Reporter