Next month police officers interaction with the public will be monitored by mystery shoppers to assess their performance.
For those officers who get a failing grade, disciplinary action is one of the measures that can be taken, acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams said.
In response to the public’s criticism of police officers’ attitudes during their town meetings, Williams announced that they would be sending out regular citizens who were genuinely seeking services to test officers response.
Speaking at the Ste Madeleine Regional Complex on Monday night, Williams said the plan was being drafted and should be rolled out by December.
Mystery Shopper, also know as secret shopper, is used by companies in their market research to determine the quality of service at their institutions.
Williams said the same concept would apply to the Police Service.
He added: “This concept is one we want to use within the domain of the Police Service to test how the public receive services at police stations.
“We want to use that concept to get people into police stations to request services and provide us with the feedback in relation to the delivery of that service.
He said police officers were being trained in public relations to enhance the communication between the public and the police.
“We can take disciplinary action but in reality our focus is about finding a mechanism to improve service so training is a critical intervention that we will seek to have in those circumstance,” he added.
He assured officers that the mystery shopper would be someone seeking a genuine service, noting that it would be unethical to make false request and it would be wasteful employment of the police.
A panel, including acting DCP Glen Hackett, ACP Donald Denoon, Snr Supt Cecil Santana and Supt Zamsheed Mohammed, were told by villagers that although there were many good police officers there were a few “rotten ones” which give the service a bad image.
Local Government Minister Marlene Coudray, a villager of Ste Madeleine, said that while there were police patrols in the community, officers should walk through the streets and meet with residents to foster better relations.
Reform/Manahambre councillor Ramesh Karapan said the public also was aggrieved at the lack of compassion and discretion by police officers when it come to issuing traffic fines.
Karapan said police charged citizens for blown tail lights, even when it could have been blown during the trip.
In response, Williams promised that more foot patrols would be done throughout the country in the coming months.
However, Santana said that once a law has been broken, police have no choice but to enforce the penalties.