Police commissioner selection must be transparent

IT SEEMS that the Police Service Commission (PSC) is about to begin interviewing candidates for the police chief’s job without the public knowing the criteria for the post.

This lack of transparency is unfortunate, carrying the risk of the benchmarks not being rigorously stresstested, resulting in the person who gets the job being incapable of the transformative actions required of the new commissioner.

In that regard, the PSC should halt the current process and allow itself the opportunity, and the time, to engage with stakeholders, including civil society, on the matter.

The PSC should, therefore, as was previously suggested by this newspaper, ask the incumbent, Antony Anderson, to stay on for several months, even up to a year, while it fashions a selection process that meets the requirements of the circumstance.

Major General Anderson, a former head of the army and national security adviser to Prime Minister Andrew Holness, has been the police commissioner since 2018. He has had mixed success.

Heavily linked with the Government’s controversial policy of control using declarations of states of public emergency as a crime-fighting tool, Major General Anderson has recently touted last year’s nearly eight per cent decline in murders – which remain at over 1,000 a year – as a sign that his strategies are beginning to take hold. He has also overseen significant investment in technological upgrades for the police.

However, critics say that while the use of technology will help to enhance efficiency and accountability, a cultural overhaul of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), which is perceived as corrupt and highly resistant to change, remains a challenge for the next commissioner.

NEW POLICE SERVICES ACT

Given the absence of any obvious public invitations for applications for the job, it is widely assumed that it is the PSC’s and the Government’s intention to recruit internally.

Two deputy commissioners (there are four), Fitz Bailey, who is in charge of crime, and Kevin Blake, whose portfolio is development and logistics, are perceived to be the front runners.

It is not clear whether the emergence of Mr Bailey, who is heading towards retirement, and Dr Blake is the outcome of succession planning, or what, apart from seniority, it is perceived they might bring to the job.

It was expected that by now, the process and criteria for selecting a commissioner would have been outlined in a new police services act, to replace the old law which established the JCF as a rigidly paramilitary institution. The development of the proposed legislation for a service-oriented constabulary has lingered since the issue was set out as one of the priorities in a 2020 consensus agreement for tackling Jamaica’s serious problem of crime. That agreement was between the Government, the Opposition and civil society organisations.

In the absence of the new legislation, The Gleaner reiterates its prior suggestion that choosing the new police commissioner should be guided by the principle set out in a 2018 document for transforming the JCF, and the updates of a recent paper that has apparently been circulating in the PSC.

CLEAR PERFORMANCE TARGETS

Legally, it is the PSC that makes a recommendation to the governor general for the police chief. It is nonetheless widely known and accepted that the person who gets the job has the backing of the Government.

That the commissioner has to have the confidence of the administration is understandable, given the sensitivity of the post and the high level of autonomy enjoyed by the police chief with respect to operational matters. That is why we support a clear acknowledgement of the Government’s interest in the selection of a commissioner, without opening the door to the elevation of partisan hacks.

We, therefore, support the idea of the PSC presenting the prime minister three shortlisted names (on which PSC has consulted with the Opposition, without affording them veto powers) from which the PM would make his choice.

Further, the police commissioner, apart from developing an operational plan for the constabulary, must be given clear performance targets and held accountable for their achievements. Those targets, except for highly sensitive matters of national security, should be public.

Apart from internal reviews, the commissioner should be subject to half-yearly public – and more frequently, if the circumstances require – appearances before the appropriate parliamentary committee to account for the performance of the JCF.