The City Constabulary needs this facility to get its recruits up to scratch

I was extremely appalled to see the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown inviting bids recently for the leasing of the City Constabulary Training Complex on Water Street. A facility which once housed the ‘House Service Department’ but which was completely retrofitted a few years at substantial cost to accommodate a full police training school. The first question to be asked is whether the Council shall be disbanding its City Police Department? Because surely, they could not be planning to maintain this force without having adequate training and refresher training for its ranks. If there is a City Police Department in the world that is in dire need of training, it is the Georgetown City Constabulary.

For some unexplained reason, I don’t know whether it is the working conditions, the salaries and other emoluments offered, or just the stigma of working for the City Council, but the City Constabulary does not attract the best of recruits. They seem to have to scrape the bottom of the proverbial barrel after the army, the national police, the fire and prison service have selected their recruits. So from the get go the Constabulary has to put in extra training to get its recruits up to scratch, and yet they would like to scrap the school and lease out the facility. Such an absurdity.

Over the years, the performance of the City Constabulary has been so dismal, they have been involved in so many unprofessional acts and they have been unable to maintain law and order in the city, all of which can be attributed to a dearth in training. So why the rush to lease this facility out which has within its confines, all the facilities needed for a police training center such as a drill square, well designed and laid out live-in barracks for recruits, training and lecture rooms, a library, kitchens for meal preparation and dining areas etc.? Then they will have to create from scratch a new facility elsewhere? It just makes no sense.

Indeed, it is rather questionable that as soon as the market for riverside and waterfront properties became pronounced as a result of the new oil and gas industry, that a few persons at the Council immediately began discussing selling this prime municipal property and only after a hue and a cry by some concerned citizens that the plan was changed to leasing it. I think I smell a rat somewhere!

Sincerely,

Mark Roopan