From police force to police service
The wheels of our justice system turn so slowly that some believe it is easier and cheaper and a quicker solution to just shoot down the suspects.
THERE WERE 66 murders in 1962, the year Jamaica gained independence, producing a murder rate of 3.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the lowest in the world. In 2005, Jamaica had 1,674 murders for a homicide rate of 58 per 100,000 people, the highest of all countries. In 2017, Jamaica had the highest rate of police killings internationally.
How can we expect the police to reduce murders in the wider society when they cannot sufficiently cut the number of shootings and killings by their own members?
In his contribution to the 2018 Sectoral Debate, newly minted National Security Minister Horace Chang announced that “during this financial year, there will be a holistic approach to police transformation, moving from a force to an effective, efficient service”.
Chang went on: “Reform will not only entail technological improvements or a simple name change, but establishing a robust accountability framework, enhanced capacity building, culture change and improvements in the standards of service delivery.”
I have taken a special interest in the actions of the Jamaica Constabulary Force in this column because my uncle was the police commissioner at Independence. I grew up respecting the police, but that respect has declined, as they have become notoriously brutal. They have a reputation for fabricating shoot-outs, kicking down poor people’s doors, scraping up young, poor, black boys into trucks for ‘processing’, and beating suspects during interrogation.
Chang announced: “We are far advanced, Mr Speaker, with drafting of the legislation to govern the new police service, as well as an effective oversight mechanism for policing functions.”
Does this mean that INDECOM will be no more? I do not believe that any division within the constabulary, with members drawn from within the ranks, can effectively police the police. The ‘squaddie’ mentality is too strong.
I thought that INDECOM – being independent – would have done the trick, despite strong resistance from our murderous police force; but then it turns out that our lawmakers – intentionally or otherwise – created INDECOM without giving them the power to really do anything. They can’t even make arrests!
DOES STATE WANT TO REDUCE KILLINGS?
Chang has now promised an “effective oversight mechanism”, and so we wait to see what that will be. But we know that the police are agents of the State, and kill in the name of the State. Does the State really want to reduce police killings? I’m not so sure. The wheels of our justice system turn so slowly that some believe it is easier and cheaper and a quicker solution to just shoot down the suspects.
Chang said: “We will be ramping up the implementation of anti-corruption activities within the police service. One corrupt policeman can define the entire organisation. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the new commissioner of police to ensure that no effort is spared with respect to weeding the force of undesirables.” I am sure he meant to say that they will be weeding out undesirables as they change the police force into a police service.
Is it that all policemen and women will be terminated, and only the “desirables” will be rehired?
Will members of the new police service be retrained to ensure that the “culture change” takes place, and to guarantee “improvements in the standards of service delivery”?
This changeover from force into service is big news, and will be the biggest crime-fighting strategy implemented by any government since the JCF was created in 1865. It is so important and potentially so far-reaching that the transition should be subject to the close scrutiny of the media and the public. For if this is done poorly, or improperly, the last state may be worse than the first.