Chang comfortable enough being done to tackle police brutality
DESPITE RECENT concerns which have been raised about allegations of police brutality and the impact of such reports on Jamaicans’ relationship with law enforcement, National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang is asserting that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is dealing efficiently with any such reported complaints.
Chang was speaking with journalists on Sunday following the official soft opening of the newly built Harbour City Shopping Mall in Montego Bay, St James, which is being touted as the first facility of its kind in Jamaica and is slated to provide some 500 jobs and 200 parking spaces for residents of the western city.
“We have, in truth, a number of avenues in the force, and the development of IPROB [Inspectorate and Professional Standards Oversight Bureau] is one, where the staff are very highly competent individuals, and the police rules are established … generally, for any complaints that have been reported, the training programme has been amended, so it is a matter of observing how effectively those will be executed, and all things like that take time. The police force is 14,000 strong today, of which 6,000 are new, but the other 8,000 have been there before, and so it’s a matter of expanded training, in all aspects of policing, both technical and with regard to professional standards,” said Chang.
“That has been done by the police force, and we are comfortable enough is being done. It is maybe more a lack of knowledge and understanding of what is happening out there,” Chang added. “What is required to ensure we have a highly professional body that does not habitually indulge in anything like any police brutality is well established, and we expect that we will have less and less of it.”
Chang made his comments days after High Court Justice Bertram Morrison raised concern about reports of police brutality which were made by a witness in the trial of Gregory Roberts, who was convicted last Wednesday for the January 29, 2017 murder of 15-year-old St James student Shineka Gray.
SUMMATION
While giving his summation of the evidence in that trial before the St James Circuit Court, Morrison made reference to accusations made by the witness that police officers came to her workplace and assaulted her.
“I need to comment here, because the police, in conducting their investigations, cannot abuse a person’s human rights. You are to treat people civilly. This sort of rough tactic, rough-house tactics, is not condoned by civil society, ought not to be condoned by civil society,” Morrison said at the time.
But in responding to that particular concern, Chang insisted that the JCF has a professional code of conduct that guides its membership’s actions.
“There could have been an incident, though I’m not aware of what the judge was alluding to… . As I said before, the police officers are operating at a very high level of professionalism, and incidents of what you would refer to as police brutality are extremely low. We’ve hardly had a report in recent times. In fact, where we look at the police shootings, we haven’t had any charges laid against anybody by INDECOM [Independent Commission of Investigations] at all, and they have been working assiduously,” said Chang.
“The Police Professional Service is active, and where there would have been complaints, they have been dealt with quite efficiently, sometimes even before they reach anywhere beyond the police department,” Chang added.
The issue of police brutality allegations, which have dogged the JCF along with accusations of corruption over the years, rose afresh last November following the publication of a viral video that reportedly depicted police personnel pepper-spraying and restraining an 11-year-old boy in Oracabessa, St Mary. That report prompted INDECOM’s assistant commissioner, Hamish Campbell, to call for the public to come forward with information regarding the incident.