Now one man who should know very well about the drudgery of the shift system is former Deputy Commissioner of Police Elodio Aragon. He was in the senior command when that controversial system was first implemented - and so today we asked him - as Police Minister whether it should continue. He says it will have to be looked into:
Hon. Elodio Aragon, Minister of State - Home Affairs
"Well the 12-hours shift system has been in operation for a couple of years. I think roughly maybe 5 years now. That was done in terms of looking at the demands and the needs of policing in this country and I think that it is not that they are working above their working hours. They work more, so we could focus on having more officers on the ground. But they do get their adequate time off. So it's not a problem. The fact is that at this point in time I think the department and the commissioner, he has to look at it directly. Because everything requires a small analysis in terms of where we are. Is it functioning? Is it effective? Does it go well with welfare? Because the police department is a dynamic organization and it requires some analysis and I'm sure the commissioner has been tasked to look at that. We have to bear in mind the where we are right now. For instance, we are in the month of November coming up to December and we have to plan towards the Christmas season and all these things. But this is a task for the commissioner and his senior staff to sit down and look and decide how they go about it."
As we understand it, the matter will now be decided by the CEO and the Minister.
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