Police Staff Association Executive Chairman Dwayne Rolle said in the wake of two senior police officers being shot, to some extent he is concerned for his officers’ safety and added that the mere fact that police officers are being attacked, should be enough to get tougher penalties for those who are comfortable ambushing authority.

“We need to have stiffer penalties for firearm possession in this country especially if you’re committing an offense with a firearm,” he said. “That should almost be a mandatory life sentence.

“I’m not only talking about targeting police officers as if we are different from anybody else but we have to understand what the police represent in this country. The police represent the law.”

The PSA chairman said gone are the days that criminals even remotely fear the police.

The reality nowadays, he said is that criminals are willing to serve a three or even five-year sentence for wounding an officer.

“The police seem to the last stand between anarchy in any country,” he added. “If it is that the police aren’t safe in their homes in their off time them no one should feel safe when it comes to crime in this country. Criminals just don’t take the aspect of punishment seriously.”

Mr. Rolle said he was outraged after bodyguard for the deputy prime minister, Sergeant Andrew Sweeting was shot in an attempted armed robbery Monday morning.

“Blatantly at 9:30 in the morning,” he added. “How can you pull a gun out in a business and residential area and pull a gun out and shoot somebody?

“At some point there needs to be a greater fear enforced from whoever is responsible for bringing down the threat and the fear of crime in this country. This has to stop.”