Reforming the Jamaica Constabulary Force

 https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/opinion/on-reforming-the-jcf_232827?profile=1096

I refer to the column by Malik Smith 'Reforming the JCF' of 4th October 2021.

As someone who was once a teen aged recruit in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and who worked with the JCF as a civilian, I can vouch for the writer's claims. Inefficiency, corruption and brutality are rampant and normalized in the culture of the JCF. Like my time in the JCF, new recruits still report being treated terribly so the JCF remains a toxic workplace. New recruits also report to me that injustice is rampant in the JCF when the JCF itself is supposed to be an integral part of our justice system. The JCF recruits from a society where corruption and brutality are also normalized so the dilemma is how do you clean the lake when the river feeding the lake is itself polluted? The training facilities are good and other islands send their police to Jamaica for training. In my batch at training school, we had officers from Cayman for training. The problem is not a lack of training.

It will take a long time to clean up the Jamaican society which is the manpower source of the JCF. As someone who also served in the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), I can categorically state that except for a short time during the Manley years when some politics creeped into the JDF, when one compares the JDF to the JCF, the JDF is less corrupt and the JDF is a more efficient force too. Yet, the JDF recruits from the same corrupt Jamaican society. The difference? The JDF has a different culture. JDF soldiers are paid less than police and yet the JDF is not known for corruption as much as the JCF so I don't think pay is such an issue as Malik makes it out to be. The JDF culture is just different.

In a well-meaning attempt to improve the JCF and in the hope that some of the military culture would rub off, several military officers have been put in charge of the JCF. However, the JCF is very resistant to change so things stay the same. Toleration for inefficiency, brutality and corruption are so entrenched in the JCF that when recruits join the JCF, if they are not already corrupt, they are soon corrupted. To succeed in the JCF, one either ignores its failings or become immersed in them. If a police officer can't take it, they leave. The turnover in the JCF is high.

So, what can we do? According to the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation's Gareth Newham in a presentation on 'Preventing Police Corruption: Lessons from the New York City Police Department on 18 Aug 2003:

1. A proactive (my emphasis) approach is necessary if police corruption is to be effectively addressed.

2. An independent internal investigative police unit is the most effective and efficient structure for tackling police corruption.

We have set up INDECOM but it is under resourced and anything but proactive. Usually, INDECOM reacts to complaints - after the fact. What we need is a proactive agency that sets up integrity and other forms of testing as a proactive approach. Simply explained, these tests consist of the creation of artificial situations replicating the normal day to day situations that police officers experience during which the integrity, efficiency or any other trait of police officers involved will be tested - without the officer being aware that they are being tested. Integrity is tested in that a police officer will be presented with an opportunity to commit misconduct or corruption without realising that they are being monitored closely - on camera. The idea behind the secretive integrity testing would be to establish an 'aura of omni-presence' of INDECOM in that police officers could reasonably assume that any interaction with a member of the public (including criminal suspects) or with a fellow officer, could be a test by INDECOM.

There are two types of tests. There are targeted tests which are conducted against specific officers or a group of officers where information is available that points to problematic behaviour. Secondly, there are random tests which are not conducted against a specific officer. The random factor is that INDECOM would not know exactly which police officers will be tested. These tests are conducted at a particular place and any of the officers on duty could undergo the test. This is a sort of Secret Shopper approach and there could also be efficiency tests, tests for friendliness, courtesy, gender bias, etc.

The JCF Commissioners, coming from the military, are resented by the non-military officers and the rank and file of the JCF so the Commissioner only gets lip service from his officers, not real cooperation. The poor military Commissioners still have to work with non-military JCF Gazetted Officers, other Officers and Sub Officers who do not share the military culture and who are often themselves corrupt. Something in the JDF military culture is different so the only solution to break the cycle is for the Military Intelligence Unit (MIU) to take over INDECOM. It is not well known but the MIU is an effective undercover intelligence asset. However, the last thing we need is another military officer to be the Commissioner of the JCF as it demoralizes the rank and file of the JCF. The problem is not the Commissioner. The problem is the culture of the JCF.

More than just a military officer to lead the JCF is needed if we are to break the cycle of inefficiency, corruption and brutality in the JCF. During this clean-up of the JCF using testing, the name of the JCF should be changed to include the word 'Service' instead of 'Force'. The Jamaica Constabulary Service? Words have power. While not every single officer in the JCF is corrupt, the corruption is so widespread that a widespread and continuing testing program carried out by INDECOM (MIU) undercover operatives would not only weed out the corrupt and the inefficient, but it would also keep the JCF clean as new recruits would know any action could be a test. In fact, these secret tests could be conducted among recruits as well to weed out the corrupt before their 'Passing Out Parade' that is before they get to work as police. Officers selected for promotion should also be subject to secret targeted tests without their knowledge to assess their potential for higher rank. 

During the transition of the clean-up of the JCF, the JDF would have to be expanded and JCF recruiting stepped up as many police officers would be caught by the testing program and dismissed. It will not be easy and will take strong political will. The challenge with my suggestion is what to do with the current corrupt policemen and women? We must get rid of most of them but they are trained and some have private firearms. Disarming and dismissing large numbers from the JCF could create a fifth column of trained, armed men and women which could make our current gangster problem seem like nothing compared to the havoc disgruntled, trained and armed ex-police could cause. INDECOM laws will have to have real teeth. We would have to put the corrupt police officers caught by the testing programs in prison - for a long, long time....

Raymond D. Grant