Dear Attorney-General, Minister of Environment, and Commissioner of Police:

I am writing to ask for an Environmental Police Unit to be established in Barbados. It is okay if it comes in the new year, I wouldn't expect it by Christmas, given such short notice.

Hang on for a second before you start thinking about elaborate structures, more personnel, and laws. We don't really need something that elaborate to start the unit. We can do with what we have right now and there is an excellent example next door in Trinidad that we can use. I'll get to that in a minute.

In the last two years since the launch of Greening Barbados, you have to admit that there has been a quantum leap in public awareness on the environment. the Nation and Starcom, took a policy decision to put more emphasis on environmental reporting and to give exposure to what other people are doing for the environment. They put their money where their mouths were. These two media houses have been joined by the former Future Centre Trust, Ernst and Young, Treading Lightly, Texaco, the Tourism Development Corporation and dozens of other companies. The Barbados Advocate and CBC have voluntarily come on board and are also engaged in environmental reporting.

The private sector has been upfront doing their thing for the last two years and it is time that Government steps in and lead from the front in a major way.

Environment manager of Bougainvillea Beach Resort and Sand Acres Hotel Wendy Sealy puts it nicely: "I know there is a lot of awareness but there is not a lot of commitment on the part of Barbadians to look after the environment." She said it is time for Government to step in. As she notes: "Some people do not have a garbage can, but have a fancy car in their driveway, and they prefer to put out garbage in a plastic bag for the dogs to go through. People should have a garbage can and if you put out your garbage and it goes all over the street you should be fined."

There are laws that demand that each one’s premises should have a garbage can.

People complain about excessive and unwanted noise, about smoke from a neighbour burning garbage, or stench from a neighbour's pig pens or chicken coop. There are laws to deal with these nuisances.

People complain about being bitten by mosquitoes day in and day out and, as you should know, the breeding of mosquitoes on one's premises is outlawed – at least on paper.

People complain about littering and illegal dumping and, as you should know there are clear and explicit laws on this matter. So clear, that is why we call the activity "illegal" dumping and already we have had at least one conviction this year for littering.

We have pleasure boats still ripping up coral reefs daily even though we have spanking new laws to deal with this illegal activity.

Here is where I come back to Trinidad and Tobago. They recognised that they too, have laws sitting on the books for decades, but which were not being enforced.

What Trinidad did was to pull 15 environmentally-conscious policemen and women from the force and constitute them into the Environmental Police Unit. Those 15 officers underwent training in the existing environmental laws (some of which were under the road traffic laws) and sent out to police the environment.

They operate in a small office in Port-of-Spain and if there is a report of illegal dumping in San Fernando, the police there calls in an environmental officer who would know under what law to make a charge.

That seems simple enough. Even though they constitute a "dedicated" unit it does not mean they cannot deal with other crimes, much the same way that police band members in Barbados are diverted when the need arises.

The benefit to the society is that there is a core team of officers that can intelligently respond to, say, a complaint about the burning of garbage.

Earlier this year, this newspaper carried out an experiment. We called each police station to complain about smoke from burning garbage on a neighbour’s property. Each station told us to call the fire service or a lawyer. We called each fire station and each, except one, told us to call the police. The exception was a woman fire officer who told us that we should direct our neighbour to Dr Colin Hudson to learn about composting.

I am concerned that, more often than not, when suggestions are made people tend to argue why it cannot work. I hope that you will, instead, explore how it can work because where there is a will, there is a way.

Dear ministers and Commissioner of Police, that is my simple Christmas wish ... or should I write Santa Claus instead?