PM reminds nation, JCF is our police force
PRIME Minister Andrew Holness has urged the nation to remember that the police force is made up of Jamaicans who are working hard to keep citizens safe, and this is the reason the country must ensure the force succeeds.
“The JCF [Jamaica Constabulary Force] is not an imported force, nor a colonial figment, and is not pulled from persons imported or hired from overseas. The JCF comes from Jamaican communities, from the Jamaican people. We make up the JCF,” Holness stated as he opened the police force’s inaugural four-day expo at the National Arena in St Andrew last Thursday.
“Unfortunately, the history has been that we see the force as being outside of us. Sometimes we see it has not being a part of us. We have given it all kinds of names; one of them, while I was growing up was I will never forget it — Babylon; and it has tarried with us for decades, indeed for close to a century,” he said.
“This impression is that our law enforcement, this force to keep us safe is somehow separate and different from us. But, whatever, the JCF is a reflection of the Jamaican society. I am happy that the JCF are finally taking matters into their own hands, to define themselves, to tell the Jamaican people that we came from you,” he added.
Holness said that since taking office in 2016, the Government has been committed to providing the JCF with the necessary resources to fight crime and to give it capacity.
He said that the country has not only talked about transformation of the JCF for decades, but has now gone the route of acquiring the skills and putting in the necessary oversight bodies and legislation.
“We have seen incremental changes, and now we have made a very serious commitment to putting the resources where our commitments are. Everything that you see displayed here represents the three-fold increase in the budget of the JCF over the last eight years,” he said,
while pointing to technology on display in the area.
He noted the acquisition of new uniforms, new traffic ticket and communications systems, as well as new processes, including electronic station diaries.
The expo, he said, was designed to display the values and principles to create a better police organisation that can display the values and principles, striving for a better quality of service and the integration of knowledge, equipment processes and devices which the police need.
“We want to change your perception of the JCF. This is our police force and we have been doing what is necessary,” Holness said.
The event, titled ‘Transformations – People, Quality and Technology Expo’, was welcomed as a historical moment for the JCF as it seeks to fulfil the promise to deliver on cutting-edge, technology-driven exhibits.
Deputy commissioner of police in charge of development and logistics Dr Kevin Blake explained that the expo was meant to allow individuals to see and feel the JCF in a new way.
“Our goal is to deliver a public exposition that highlights the technology-enabled quality-management reforms and transformation which have systematically been happening in the JCF over the past five to six years,” he said.