‘Informer fi dead’ culture must go, says Commish

COMMISSIONER OF Police George Quallo is calling for the ‘informer fi dead’ culture, which permeates Jamaica, to be eradicated. Using a recent experience, he highlighted the importance of citizens stepping forward with information about crimes they have witnessed.

Quallo was speaking at a gathering of members from the Rotary Club of Kingston, which was held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel earlier this week.

“Far too long, this notion of informer fi dead remains alive. Recently, a man lost his life in a rural parish. We had information that this man was the witness to a murder, and all we tried, he would not say anything. He was able to say to the police that ‘I know who killed this man, but I am not prepared to give any account as to what happened’. He wouldn’t speak to investigators to give them information that he had,” he shared.

“We used all sorts of methods in trying to get him to understand that he has a responsibility, not just to the victim, but to the victim’s family and Jamaica, Land We Love, to speak about what is happening.”

Quallo continued, “Sad to say, a couple of weeks later, he was killed. The information that was made available to us is that he was killed by persons who committed the first murder. The information available to us is that they were afraid that at some point in time, he was going to change his mind and was going to speak.

“I leave you to draw your own conclusions, but we cannot continue in a society where we know what is happening, but in the same breath, we say nothing. I ask that you use your voices to strengthen the work of the security forces. No longer can anyone sit idly by and say we are not giving information,” bemoaned Quallo.