THE Commissioner of Police (CoP) and deputy police commissioners (DCPs) should be elected by the public and accountable to them.
Barry Garcia, a former police officer made this comment at a public consultation held by the National Advisory Committee on Constitutional Reform (NACCR) at San Fernando City Hall auditorium on April 18.
Garcia told the committee that he was a police officer for 33 years.
While there were many dedicated officers in the service, Garcia believed there were some who sought their own interests as opposed to doing their duty.
He did not believe the current system to select CoPs and DCPs, involving the Police Service Commission and the Parliament, selected the best people to fill those posts.
Garcia said the Constitution should be reformed so that CoPs and DCPs "must be elected by the public."
He added such would ensure they would be scrutinised by the members of the public in the performance of their duties.
Garcia suggested the Constitution be reformed to allow for an executive president, senators must be elected, recalls for non-perfoming MPs, MPs should not be cabinet ministers and members of a cabinet should be chosen from the brightest people in society.
He questioned why state enterprises were not directly accountable to the public.
Owing to the composition of parliamentary joint select committees (JSCs), Garcia continued, the government members protected the companies while the opposition members attacked them.
He said at the end of that process, no one was certain whether the companies had properly accounted for their actions.
Garcia suggested state companies account directly to the people through the 14 local government corporations which represent people at the base of society.
He was uncertain whether any government was serious about constitutional reform.
Former NAR government senator Leonard Bradshaw said the Constitution should be reformed to allow fixed election dates, an executive president and fixed terms of office for that president and his cabinet.
Denison Jagessar said the Constitution should be reformed so no situation could arise where politicians could entrench themselves for life in government or opposition.
"In the Parliament there is no conscience. People vote like sheep.Where is the humanity in the thing?"
Jagessar said the Constitution should be reformed to remove the parliamentary whips on the government and opposition members, so they could speak and vote their conscience on certain matters of national importance.
He also said privileges should be removed on parliamentarians speaking, so they could face legal repercussions for their statements in Parliament and not unfairly attack ordinary citizens without consequences.
"What is the difference between them and us?" Jagessar asked.
Dumaris Horsely said for constitutional reform to be effective, the committee should go to all 41 constituencies and not to certain selected areas.
Valmiki Ramsingh said the Constitution should be reformed so there would be fixed terms of office
