After weeks of speculation, media reports Thursday indicated that the Police Service Commission (PSC) and the Commissioner of Police have stopped the buck-passing, and the Commissioner will announce the reassignment of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams no later than tomorrow.

Claude Robinson

At the time of writing (Thursday morning), it was not clear where Commissioner Lucius Thomas would send Adams, but the signs were that he would not resume command of a special forces unit like the now disbanded Crime Management Unit which he headed until it was embroiled in the multiple-killings case at Kraal, Clarendon in 2003.

I hope the signs are correct for, while natural justice demands that SSP Adams be reassigned to active policing, I believe it could be counter-productive to the modernisation process and the rebranding of the Force to which the government and the police High Command say they are committed.

Commissioner Thomas must be able to find a suitable assignment for Adams's skills and experience without putting him in a place where the High Command could end up spending an enormous amount of expensive management time quashing controversies that seem always to swirl around Adams.

Regardless of the final decision, though, the issues underlying the emotional public debate over the future of SSP Adams are not likely to disappear soon, because they reflect sharply divided views in the society about the kind of policing needed to control violent crime and re-establish social order.

If he's assigned to a low-profile desk job, his numerous supporters will lament this as a victory for what they sometimes mockingly call the 'criminal rights' lobby at home and abroad and a retreat from 'tough policing' necessary to lay low the criminal gunmen.

And if he returns to the front lines to command a high-profile field operations forces unit, detractors will see this as a signal from the police High Command that force will trump intelligence gathering as well as human rights and justice concerns in the crime-fighting strategy.

ADAMS. expected to be reinstated sometime this week

Last December, the Courts acquitted SSP Adams and the other five policemen attached to the CMU of murder charges related to the killing of four persons in Kraal, Clarendon, on May 7, 2003.
After undergoing a period of psychological evaluation, the others were reinstated to active duty while Adams remained in limbo and even asked Public Defender Howard Hamilton to examine his case which Adams believed had been influenced by 'external forces'.

The unidentified 'external forces' were widely believed to be the British as the British government has been providing most of the 'foreign' assistance to the Jamaican government and the JCF for the reform and modernisation of the Force.

The assistance includes collaboration on international crime-fighting issues like drug trafficking, money laundering, financial and institutional support for the reform process and help in paying part of the salaries of DCP Mark Shields and other senior British police officers assigned to the Constabulary as part of the reform and modernisation.

In a carefully crafted statement recently, the British High Commission in Jamaica "noted" that a decision was pending on the possible reinstatement of SSP Adams, adding, "We are clear that the British government's support for the JCF in no way condones the activities carried out by the Crime Management Unit, that led to the allegations at Kraal in Clarendon."

So while the statement made no comment on what should or should not happen to SSP Adams, as this was clearly the responsibility of the Jamaican authorities, it left no doubt about the kind of reforms they have been supporting and will continue to support.

"We believe that the JCF and the government of Jamaica are working hard to ensure that the JCF becomes a more professional, highly regarded and transparent organisation. The British Government remains committed to supporting the JCF in this regard," the statement added.

The modernisation strategy seems to be working. Modest reductions in major crimes so far this year are encouraging. Up to the end of May, the police are reporting a drop in the number of murders from 572 so far for the year compared to 722 for the corresponding five-month period of 2005. Other major crimes have also recorded reductions.

The decline in the murder toll represents a 21% drop and is a positive sign, even if small, compared to the level of reductions necessary before average citizens can see and feel the difference in their daily experience and interpretation of the reality around them, including continuing news reports of murders most vicious.

Police officials attribute the decline to better policing, especially intelligence gathering at the community level and the painstaking work of the Kingfish Task Force leading to arrest and conviction of high-profile figures previously thought to be untouchable.
Ironically, the JCF that the British are now helping to change was the one created by the British colonial authorities and local administrators as a paramilitary force following the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion.

The colonial administrators, frightened by the rising militant demands for justice, human rights and economic opportunity by former slaves and their offspring, created the Jamaica Constabulary Force, enlisting strong young men to use brute force to keep the majority black population in check and protect the property interests of the ruling class.

Over the years, there have been important and meaningful changes to humanise the Constabulary.
But there have also been many episodes in our history, such as 1938, in which the Force has been used not merely for public order but to maintain colonial authority and the privilege of a minority planter class against the many struggles for equal rights and justice.

Those struggles are yet to be won, fully. At the same time, the country is faced with one of the highest murder rates in the world and is plagued by threats from dangerous young men who will not hesitate to shoot you or me or to confront the police with deadly force.

In that context, there is a great deal of support for what is sometimes called 'tough policing' and 'fighting fire with fire'. For many, Adams personifies that approach, hence his legion of support.

And while I have no doubt that some of those National Security Minister Peter Phillips calls "the hard men of violence" have to be dealt with forcefully, this cannot be at the expense of respect for the law by those who enforce the law.
Nor can it be at the expense of reforming the JCF and creating a Police Force in which the masses of the Jamaican people can have trust and confidence.
The regular 'we want justice' demonstrations reported on the nightly television news and the frequent confrontations between citizens and police and, even between police and police, are clear indications that the transformation process has a long way to go.
Against that background, Phillips and the JCF must press on with the modernisation process, with professionalising the Force and making it more accountable to civilian oversight.

The announced campaign to "rebrand" the Constabulary into a modern police service to deal with what Phillips called "Jamaica's complex social environment and in keeping with international standards" must be pursued with seriousness and earnestness.

The modernisation is one of the central themes of the National Security Strategy (NSS), which argues that the country must have a modern police force with enhanced efficiency, capacity, and professionalism, better equipped with greater technological sophistication, and enjoying the full trust of the Jamaican people.

The 'rebranding', according to Phillips, will produce a new JCF: beginning with the next batch of trainees the aim is to attract a higher level of recruits, upgrade the curriculum, and extend the period of training for all levels in the force to achieve the desired levels of professionalism.

"We don't intend to train anyone or to expend resources on recruiting anyone who has not undergone the appropriate psychological testing to see that they are not persons disposed to indiscriminate use of force, or to have persons who may have or are trying to hide a criminal background."

One initiative proposed by the NSS is a strategic review of the Jamaica Constabulary Force that Phillips said would be launched immediately. This comprehensive review of the role, structure, organisation and performance of the Constabulary coincides with one of the recommendations from the Col Trevor MacMillan Task Force appointed by Opposition Leader Bruce Golding.
The coincidence suggests that there will be bipartisan support for changing the very nature of the JCF.

But the comprehensive review should not be just a government-opposition thing. Every effort must be made to involve the entire society in shaping the new JCF.

The one we have now was not our creation, entirely, although we, as a society, including the media, have influenced the way it has developed through our relationship with the organisation and the issues on which we support or criticise the police.

I believe it is important that all segments of Jamaican society be actively engaged in fashioning the "rebranded" organisation. It is clear that the Police Service of the 21 st Century will have to be very different from the Police Force created in the 19 th century or the one we inherited at the time of political independence 40-odd years ago.

What we need is more of a police service and less of a police force, although one would have to be incredibly naive to believe that the use of force will not be necessary to maintain order and social peace from time to time.
Claude Robinson is research fellow in the Mona School of Business, UWI. kcr@cwjamaica.com

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