THE EDITOR, Sir:

Regarding the recent con-fession by Detective Constable Carey Lyn-Sue, I find the responses by some policemen published in The Gleaner on Monday, January 21 to be both reprehensible and alarming.

Of particular concern is the comment by one policeman that the Constable "reacted in contravention of what he was taught at training school, the secret pact which required that no one backtrack from a contrived storyline, regardless of the consequences."

Is the public to understand that this is the established modus operandi in the Force, the taught culture in the constabulary? Are we really to believe that our police officers are 'taught' that to 'cover up' for ones colleagues even in questionable circumstances is more important than upholding the truth?

To castigate someone who confesses in good conscience to a wrong committed, to call him "a fool", who "needs a proper psychological evaluation because it look like him a mad", speaks to a serious breakdown in moral and ethical sensibilities among some members of the force. To describe truth telling as "talk(ing) foolishness to mash up other people's life" indicates a narrow, self-centred expediency rather than a desire to see truth upheld.

One can only hope that these views represent a small minority of the force.

I for one, however, would like to hear a public response by the commissioner to these utterances, if even to assure the public that this is not the 'code' by which the force operates.

I am, etc.,

C. E. McCLURE

Kingston