IT WOULD SEEM some rank and file members of the Royal Barbados Police Force are purposely ignoring two particular directives from the police high command because they feel the order is not in keeping with the times.
At least, that is what Cou Cou has been told.
The two directives, announced last year by Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of operations, Eucklyn Thompson, were that police vehicles must no longer be driven with air conditioners on and windows up, and that ranks must wear their hats at all times while in uniform.
An irate caller told Cou Cou to check how many police vehicles were actually driven with their windows up and how many officers wore their hats when they were sitting in those vehicles.
And he reminded that when those directives were announced, some upset cops regarded them as regressive and declared that the rules were putting unnecessary pressure on them.
So for two days Cou Cou looked at each police vehicle we saw to see which had their windows up and if the officers inside were wearing their hats.
We saw nine vehicles and the windows were down in only two of them as decreed, while in five cases the ranks inside were not wearing their hats.
That said, though, it is understandable that police officers would prefer travelling in air conditioned comfort rather than endure the suffocating heat because the past few days have been very hot.
And can you imagine what it would have been like for them to be travelling on a hot day in a hot vehicle wearing a hat?
So while Cou Cou understands that directives in a disciplined service should be followed, you really have to ask whether it makes sense having rules that cause your personnel discomfort.
Clearly, Acting Commissioner Tyrone Griffith has to address this one.
Two not on the same page
THE COMPETITON for supremacy within a certain powerful group took a very public and interesting twist this week when one of the two most high-profile, aspiring leaders made the other appear uninformed.
But while this man of numbers may have clarified his earlier statement to clear himself of any controversy, he left the public asking whether he and his brash rival are on the same team.
After all, how could the two of them sit around the same table, discuss such an important issue, but one get it wrong, while the other – the numbers man – doesn’t?
And coming after another member of their group also sought to clarify certain aspects about the group’s work in a recent forum, it left some members of the public wondering about the level of communication that takes place between these powerful people.
The incident, which has brought the discord to the fore, surrounds the building of a new edifice. The brash aspirant, whose no-nonsense statements have tagged him as the manager in the team who gets the job done – and therefore the best replacement for the ageing leader – told an opponent he did not have the full facts about the edifice.
However, as was later discovered by an activist interested in the construction of the building, the opponent was right and the brash one was wrong.
The numbers man made sure to clarify his position to show he was on point, but this left his brash rival out in the cold and looking uninformed.
