THE EDITOR: I have asked this question before and, after that display of a large entourage comprising the heads of the police, army, Coast Guard, fire and prisons, along with many senior officers, walking through the streets of Port-of-Spain on Carnival Tuesday again this year - and with a huge security presence - for nothing short of a "gallerying" exercise and publicity stunt with the Minister of National Security, I must ask again: what purpose does that serve?

Why should the commissioner of police (CoP) be involved in this sham instead of being on horseback with an orderly moving freely along the parade route and between the competition venues to have a good sense of what is taking place?

Also, why have the chief fire officer and the prisons' commissioner in this charade? I feel sure their time could be spent in a better manner.

This has been going on for the past several years with previous security heads. I see it as an absolute waste of supervisory manpower since those senior officers could have been augmenting the service elsewhere.

In days gone by the CoP, his deputies and his assistant commissioners would all have been on horseback traversing the city.

CoP Erla Harewood-Christopher, please do not succumb to this charade again and do the policing you know you should be doing on those days, instead of being a part of the political "gallerying" through the city with the politicians.

Get together with the other security heads and tell the National Security Minister that this serves no useful purpose and takes you and the others away from being more productive and that you won't be involved in that exercise again.

You cannot allow yourself to be any national security minister's puppet. So, please be the one to put a stop to the tomfoolery.

CLYDE ALPHONSO

via e-mail

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