Police chief resigns
THE resignation of Commissioner of Police, John Kelland, was published in The Fiji Times on November 25, 1977.
Mr Kelland confirmed he had given the required three months’ notice early that November and was expected to leave Fiji by February,
The Fiji Times had also learnt from reliable sources that the government had offered to renew Mr Kelland’s contract for another three years on “their own terms”.
Mr Kelland would not accept it because he thought they would have devalued the office of the Commissioner of Police, the sources said.
When the Fiji Government recruited Mr Kelland from Britain in June 1975, he was appointed as a level one officer in the Fijian civil service.
After the Thompson and Dellow Report on the civil service in 1976, the annual salaries of the Commissioner of Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Solicitor-General were kept at the same level at $15,500 while those of the permanent secretaries were upgraded to $16,500.
Later, the positions of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Solicitor-General were raised to correspond with the permanent secretaries.
But the salary for the position of the Commissioner of Police was not raised.
Sources in the police circles said Mr Kelland was not personally concerned about the disparity in salaries, but worried about the status of the Commissioner of Police, whoever might hold that position.
Mr Kelland’s salary was supplemented by the British government at the time.
Police officers who heard of Mr Kelland’s resignation were unhappy but their suggestions had been “knocked back”.
When asked by The Fiji Times if this was true, Mr Kelland said it was not entirely correct.
He said the government had “deferred” several proposals because of lack of money.
He had suggested the creation of a mobile police force to be based at Lautoka –– a floating, fully equipped police station to patrol Lau and Lomaiviti, more rural police stations, a new and bigger police dog training area and increased manpower to the force,
After Mr Kelland reorganised the force in 1975, the overall crime rate under the penal code in the previous three years had fallen by 26.16 per cent.
The number of robberies also decreased by 42.18 per cent, break-ins by 45.92 per cent and larceny by 14.62 per cent.