Just when we thought it couldn't get worse...

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Last week, we had very unhappy reasons to warn this country of the deadly game of corruption that threatens to render our police force inoperable. But just when we thought it could get no worse, it did.

We spoke in this space last Tuesday about the commandeering of police resources by unscrupulous individuals to be used against certain Jamaicans, at the behest of people who do not wish them well. This was in the case of a false tip allegedly sent from police narcotics to The Bahamas that contraband was on a Sandals plane, clearly to cause embarrassment.

This development by itself constitutes a monumental assault on the integrity of the police force, with the potential to take away all the confidence that citizens should bestow on it and consequently the support it should get in the fight against crime.

We also spoke about the discovery of a massive arms cache that was traced to the Police Armoury and Stores, suggesting that guns and ammunition paid for or otherwise acquired by the State, were finding their way into illegal hands.

This week, the picture got messier. Anti-Corruption Branch Police reported Tuesday that a 9mm Beretta pistol handed over to the Police Armoury and Stores from an illegal possession of firearm case in 2003 had been recovered from the streets.

It has to be clear now to even the blind that the armoury has been the source of gun-running, God knows for how long. We find it hard to believe that a single individual could be responsible. Men have corrupted the police force to the very core, and the question now has to be whether the Jamaica Constabulary Force can be reformed sufficiently to provide Jamaica the level of security and sophistication needed in these modern times.

Our support for Acting Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington can in no wise be questioned. However, we must urge him to eschew tardiness and move with every dispatch to see to the completion of the audit and investigations into the operations at the police armoury.

We believe that for Mr Ellington it is more than a job that he is pursuing, and he must know that his tenure, should he be confirmed in the post, will not enjoy one iota more of success than his predecessors, even if he gave it his every waking hour, without deep and fundamental change.

We believe that Prime Minister Bruce Golding and National Security Minister Dwight Nelson can leave a lasting legacy from this administration if they moved forthwith to create the opportunity for the Jamaican populace, local and overseas, to engage with their ideas and suggestions, in a far-reaching review of the JCF.

It is a difficult prospect to redo a police force. But we seem to be at the point where no less is necessary. It is an exercise that as a nation we must carry out together. There is no foreseeable time when we will not need a police force.

The audit of the Police Armoury and Stores ordered by Mr Ellington could be the start of a complete audit of the force. The results should then be used as the basis for the national discourse on the kind of police force that Jamaica needs.

Tempus fugit.

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COMMENTS (8)

shannan shaw
3/6/2010

they should be a law invention for who break the law.

D Ranks
2/26/2010

The Editor talks about a legacy of this government, but when a request for Chrisopher Coke was put on the back burner, the police was stumped. Here you have a man accused by the American government of gunrunning, a man who is a significant figure in a consituency held by the Prime Mininister, and not one darn thing has been done about it. What we know, by their very action, is that the government is acting as Cokes legal council. Mr Coke is not even given a chance to say something in his defence, in any venue, courts or otherwise, in Jamaica. All that we keep getting is su-su, su-su. You cannot help but think that this is corruption too.
The corruption that is ravaging the JCF runs so deep, or should I say high up, you have to wonder if even if the government dismantle the present police force and start a new one if it will matter one iota.
Now look at the spate of extrajudicial killings by the police; for one week alone, so far over six; over thirty-nine since the year started. You have to ask why? Is this about dealing with corruption, dealing with crime, or just plain revenge, frustration and anger!?
This debate on corruption in the JCF, warranted as it is, is putting police men and women under tremdos pressure and it not being addressed fast enough. We are not even certain if we have a Conmminsioner of Police, for God's sakes. And, the minister of security seems lost and unfocused, so much so that he wants judges spoken to about decision they make in their courts. That too is what ails us, and it is questionable behaviour. What the minister ought to do get us a real Police Comminsioner, not an acting one, so that whatever is to be done in the JCF can be done unimpeded and quick, and take the pressure off the good decent police men and women who are at risk from their own and possibly themselves.

Richie L
2/26/2010

A picture of the Police armoury yesterday's Observer tells it all. Like most government building in Jamaica it is decrepit.
.
We can't make a proper morgue for Jamaica and we can't build proper government buildings anywhere.
.
Why is it so hard to make a secure building that stores the guns of the JCF? Why is it so hard to put in place procedures so that guns don't leave willy-nilly?
.
If the Prime Minister had shown any leadership, he would have been on national TV addressing this. He would have used this as the last straw to push for a total revamping of the JCF. The JCF needs to be reorganized division by division. Look at all polce personnel and decide who will stay or not. The ones who will stay should be retrained. New policies need to be put in place on how police operate. Also, the manner in which guns are used needs to be looked at. We have too many incidences of men attacking a police party with the police returning fire and later finding the men nursing gunshot wounds and the later dying at hospital.
.
Enough of the monkey business; we can do better.
Richie

mark jones
2/26/2010

i really cant understand how a highly sensitive area like the armoury has such premedieval systems of inventory management. This of course when supermarkets and stores employ low cost inventory systems for merchandise which are of much less significant importance.

2/25/2010

I think confirming Acting Commissioner Owen Ellington as Police Commissioner is mistake and should be resisted. It will be just as much as a debacle as keeping Senator Dwight Nelson as Minister of National Security.
I have proposal I made about 5 years ago in relation to tacking and security in Agriculture, I have repeated it many times for scrap metal trade and now I am suggesting it for tracking and security of weapons.
It will not solve the problems but it will reduce the lack of accountably and/or pure mistakes seems to be a fixture of the Police Armoury and related services.
My suggestion either or in combination use GPS and/or RFID Tracking on legal firearm issued, imported, sold and/or stored in Jamaica.
GPS might be cheaper but RFID is better for minturization and convenience.
If a RFID Real Time Location System (RTLS) is employed as widely as I have proposed it I am pretty sure the costs will fall to a very low figures , while the spin-offs in terms of Technology transfer, research and design will be very beneficial to Jamaica.
....TG....

BHUDEY BHUDEY
2/25/2010

First of all ,we have finally come to realize that there is a problem in the police force.I must say this even though i knew there were problems ,i did not know the magnitude of the problem until recently, however John public knew this all along and they are not surprised.There are a certain group of people in Jamaica that are facilitators of the problems we face with the police force today. .Whenever the police does anything wrong they would attack the people that bring wrongdoing to the forefront and as a result encourage wrongdoers to continue destroying image of the police that is one of their assets.Where are these people now?I guess ashamed,guilty and hiding.We need the police and so the police must strart from scratch again and build the force that the decent people of the JCF want to be in and the public can benifit from.

2/25/2010

The corruption in the JCF has been a problem for decades and part and parcel of the greater problem in Jamaican society. In my opinion it will take a complete change in our culture as a country where this mind set can be rooted out of our society.Until this is achieved we will continue to lose status in the world as a progressive country and the resulting foriegn exchange that we so desperatly need,I hate to think what the future holds for our country we are well on our way to being the next Haite, God help us.
ML Brown

Jay Brown
2/25/2010

I have a solution, lets "divest" the JCF maybe some other entity other than the GOJ can fix it.
Seriously however, the force cannot be fixed, it has to be shutdown and restarted from scratch.
We want nothing less.

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Police threat level at extreme

Just when we thought it couldn't get worse...