Montaque Correctly Rejects Quallo’s Report.…

National Security Minister Robert Montague has reject­ed the report sub­mit­ted to him by Police Commissioner George Quallo.
Montaque had demand­ed a full report from the police on the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the traf­fic pile­up on new years day, on the sole road which leads into the Norman Manley International airport.

According to pub­lished reports, the traf­fic pile­up came as a result of rev­el­ers block­ing the road­ways pre­vent­ing the free flow of traffic.
Many trav­el­ers wish­ing to leave the coun­try were report­ed to have missed their flights.
Montague cor­rect­ly demand­ed a full report from Quallo as to the cir­cum­stances which led to what clear­ly was a dan­ger­ous and cost­ly foul-up.
For his part Commissioner, Quallo has said that the inci­dent was an embar­rass­ment to his Agency.

In a release, yes­ter­day Minister Montague said the report did not meet the stan­dards which the Jamaican pub­lic has come to expect from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

He said the report is inad­e­quate, as it has not addressed the ques­tions he raised. According to the release, the report did not out­line the con­di­tions of approval and did not clear­ly speak to a polic­ing plan that was put in place for the event. Montague said as the min­is­ter, he can­not accept the report as it is not reflec­tive of the hard work of the men and women who pro­tect Jamaica daily.

He said it is on their behalf that he had no choice but to reject it.
Additionally, the min­is­ter said based on reports from the pub­lic, the police per­son­nel on the ground dis­played the utmost pro­fes­sion­al­ism and cour­tesy, in the face of the hos­tile behav­ior from some peo­ple who attend­ed the party.
Montague remind­ed the Commissioner that he has total com­mand and super­in­ten­dence of the force and as such some­one must be held accountable.

National Security Minister Robert Montague is well with­in his rights to reject the report from the Police Commissioner based on the bul­let points he out­lined for the rejection.
The JCF has been under attack for decades, some­thing which the present com­mis­sion­er bears no respon­si­bil­i­ty for, the Island is sim­ply a crim­i­nal sup­port­ing enclave.

Nevertheless, the JCF can­not be absolved of respon­si­bil­i­ty for some of the prob­lems it faces. The chal­lenges are many and the options are few, notwith­stand­ing the police depart­ment had it with­in itself to do a much bet­ter job for the country.
Lack of resources, polit­i­cal inter­fer­ence, sub­ver­sive attacks from crim­i­nal rights groups and a lack of prop­er remu­ner­a­tions are just a few of the chal­lenges which have plagued the agency.

Over the decades, how­ev­er, as the com­plaints rose to crescen­do lev­els, the police high com­mand has been con­tent to sit on the side­lines and allow the rank-and-file members,[the offi­cers with the least pow­er] to bear the full brunt of the crit­i­cisms and per­se­cu­tion from the crim­i­nal sup­port­ing public.
Clearly, the lat­est report of the com­mis­sion­er up the lad­der has been noth­ing more than an abbre­vi­at­ed doc­u­ment which was hasti­ly thrown togeth­er to deflect blame from the incom­pe­tence of the high command.

No Inspector, Sergeant or cor­po­ral much less a con­sta­ble has the author­i­ty to green-light sport­ing events like the one which cre­at­ed the log-jam on the Palisadoes road.
Minister Montague is exact­ly cor­rect in the stance he has tak­en in not allow­ing Commissioner Quallo to deflect blame from the senior aides under his command.

For years this writer has com­plained about the lev­el of incom­pe­tence with­in the high com­mand. Simple fix­es to prob­lems elude the senior cadre of the depart­ment and the con­se­quences are chan­neled to the men and women who have zero con­trol over deci­sion making.
Members of the Police High com­mand have no sense of shame in hog­ging the cam­eras when the hard-work­ing men and women of the depart­ment reap success.
They should not be allowed to hide away and chan­nel blame onto the pow­er­less offi­cers who do their best under try­ing circumstances.