POLITICS-JAMAICA: Police Reform Put to the Test

By Zadie Neufville Reprint | | Print |

Zadie Neufville

KINGSTON, May 28 2001 (IPS) - Two days after the launch of the government’s new crime fighting measure, gang violence shattered the calm of western Kingston. Two people died in the ensuing battle.

National Security Minister Keith Knight had instituted earlier this month all but three of 83 crime-busting recommendations made by the US-based Police Executive Research (Inspectors of Police) Forum (PERF).

But within days it was challenged by what police say could be politically motivated warfare or attempts at reprisal for the death last month, of three community leaders linked to the ruling People’s National Party (PNP).

Men with high-powered weapons took their fight to the streets of west Kingston bringing everyday activities to a halt in the communities of Hannah Town, linked to the PNP and Denham Town a stronghold for the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

It took the intervention of heavily armed policemen from the Crime Management Unit (CMU), which has been accused by Amnesty International and local human rights groups of carrying out extra- judicial killings, to restore calm.

Critics say the PERF recommendations will not stop incidents like that in Denham Town and neighbouring Hannah Town. University of the West Indies (UWI) political science lecturer, Dr. Anthony Harriott said that given the high level of fear and victimisation in the society, police reform is not enough to reduce crime.

In response to the PERF recommendations, the Jamaica Constabulary Force will increase patrols in high crime areas, add new homicide teams, give additional training to its members and obtain a 1.6 million dollar finger-printing machine.

On May 7, the recommendations were implemented with the deployment of 44 specially trained policemen and women in St. Andrew South, where in the last three years, between 19 and 21 percent of the island’s murders have taken place.

Here, Assistant Commissioner Charles Scarlet believes the likely impact of increased police presence and crime fighting would be visible. St. Andrew South, Eastern Kingston and North St. Andrew were also the areas selected for special homicide teams.

Harriott pointed to previous attempts at police reforms that he said missed the opportunity at more comprehensive crime-control plans by “over-estimating the potential effect of improved policing”.

The PERF report is the most recent in a series of reports on crime and policing in Jamaica. There have been the 1975-76 Barnett Commission on Crime, the 1982 United Nations Committee, the 1985- 86 National Advisory Council on Crime and Justice, the 1990 National Advisory Committee on Crime and Violence, the 1991 Hirst Report on the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and, perhaps the best known, the 1993 Report of the National Task Force on Crime also called the Wolfe Report.

PERF, a group of former police inspectors, was hired in October 2000 by the American Chamber of Commerce in Jamaica (AmCham) to combat the rising crime they believe has hampered the country’s ability to attract investments.

“We should by now have a fairly good idea of what the problems are and how to move forward with this process of reform,” said Harriott.

In the last 10 years, murders have risen from just over 450 to almost 900 a year. Close to half the population said they were fearful of walking the streets, a 1998 poll said. About 16 percent were fearful of walking alone during the daytime and eight percent felt unsafe at home after dark.

“I feel that if we truly believe that it can be solved by purely police methods, we are setting up the police for a terrible failure and perhaps pushing them into desperate measures that will not work,” Harriott said.

A point supported by the Jamaica Constabulary Modernisation Project (JCMP) manager Robert Davis who puts forward the idea that only residents can bring peace to communities affected by crime and violence.

Scarlet said over time the PERF recommendations will be introduced starting with those that cost the least amount of money to implement.

But government has refused to consider the dissolution of the Mobile Reserve, a heavily armed, denim-clad response team, the Independent Police Complaints Authority or the introduction of plea-bargaining.

“We fail to accept it at this stage because it is not in our best interest, but we have not closed the door,” Knight said.

Over time units such as the CMU could be merged with the Mobile Reserve to create a more efficient crime-fighting unit, Scarlett said. In the meantime, the police will benefit from stress management, human rights and human dignity, and firearm training, inner city code of conduct as well as knowledge of the patrol zones.

But Davis argues that success calls for additional resources to support the police in its work, also a PERF report finding. One example: in the absence of an effective paramedic service here, the police face a dilemma at serious crime scenes.

Davis noted: “If they assume that a person has died and leave the body where it lies, they are accused of delaying treatment and allowing the individual to die. If they take the injured to hospital, they are accused of destroying the crime scene”.

Other recommendations include the recruitment of close to 1,500 men to increase the strength of the force.