Caging dirty cops - JamaicaObserver.com

Sunday, November 08, 2009 1:24 AM

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Caging dirty cops

10 policemen retired in the public interest

HG HELPS Editor-at-Large Investigative Coverage Unit icu@jamaicaobserver.com

Monday, June 15, 2009

Under the strict rules of evidence that bind Jamaican courts, caging dirty cops is easier said than done, police officials and lawyers say.

ACP Les Greene

Hard-pressed to find incontrovertible evidence, Police Commissioner Hardley Lewin has just retired 10 members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) "in the public interest", for their association with a million-dollar lottery scandal, high level police sources said.

"The police had little evidence to present before a court that would have led to a criminal conviction," the source told the Observer.

The practice of retiring policemen in the public interest has been around for decades and gained prominence during the 1970s and '80s when senior and junior members of the Constabulary were fingered in probes for being either directly involved or serving as accessories to illegal activities.

JCF records show that five policemen were retired in the public interest between 1999 and now. Before that, an unofficial tally puts the figure at 11 between 1965 and 1999.

"It would have been hard to prove the allegations against (the most recent 10) in a criminal case," assistant commissioner of police Les Greene said in an interview.

"We had no choice. The Director of Public Prosecutions ruled against criminal charges, as there was not sufficient evidence to charge them," Greene said.

The 10 were among a group of 16 policemen attached to the Mount Salem police station in St James, who were implicated in the scandal that also saw the bizarre 'hiring' of a fake policeman, who was given access to the station's high-powered guns.

The remaining six were reinstated, but two are being investigated. The 10 policemen have the right to appeal.

"Any policeman can be retired in the public interest if it is adjudged by the Police Services Commission (PSC) that it is in the interest of the public", former PSC member Dr Lloyd Barnett told the Observer.

"They can be retired if it is deemed that you cannot do things like communicate confidential matters to them," Dr Barnett, a respected constitutional lawyer, explained.

Asked why the Constabulary did not fire suspected bad cops, Barnett said that when someone was retired in the public interest, "you don't have to prove misconduct".

"However, if you decided to terminate his employment, you just can't fire anybody without a dismissal process and you would have to prove that an offence was committed. If you go the route of dismissal, the person would also be entitled to certain benefits," Barnett added.

Senior lawyer K Churchill Neita echoed some of Barnett's sentiments.

"A policeman who is retired in the public interest might not be able to face criminal charges because the evidence isn't available to charge him," Neita said. "In any case, even if that is done the person can appeal it by taking the matter before the Constitutional Court to quash the decision," said Neita.

Not all cops retired in the public interest were proven to be dirty.

"In times gone by, this method of retiring policemen in the public interest was used as a political weapon, if it was felt that the person had a particular leaning toward a certain political party," Neita suggested.

"I remember when the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) came to power in 1980, it retired a policeman from the 1970s, Lloyd Thomas, who received awards for bravery for three straight years, but was retired in the public interest," Neita reflected.

Thomas is a former head of the famed Echo squad of the 1970s, which was mandated by the police force at the time to capture ruthless gunmen and reduce incidence of terror by unlawful elements against citizens.

He was retired in the public interest by then commissioner Joe Williams, who himself earned a reputation for being a feared if unorthodox crime fighter.

"It amounts to the same thing as firing a policeman, only that different terminologies are used to describe the process," Neita said.

Some notable crime fighters have been retired in the public interest, but cases have been won in the Constitutional Court, among them the one involving police inspector Donovan "Hucks" O'Connor, who was reinstated.

O'Connor's critics viewed him then as having had a reputation for being a rugged, if not aggressive, crime fighter who did his job sometimes in an unorthodox fashion.

Complaints against O'Connor being involved in irregular behaviour that contravened force rules were not substantiated, the court found, and the Police Services Commission had to give him back his job.

One policeman who was retired in the public interest during the 1980s told the Observer that it was "sheer hell" trying to convince his close friends and family that he had done nothing wrong.

"To this day, I remain innocent," said the policeman, who asked for anonymity. "I was accused of being involved with drug traffickers, also being connected to gunmen based in the inner city. I was kicked out of the force after serving more than 20 years and never got a pension, so I had to fend for myself. It is a good thing that I was able to stand up and find other things to do, so that I could keep myself and my family going.

"If I were involved in drugs, how come I had to struggle so much, after I was retired in the public interest, to keep me going," he asked.

When a policeman retires in the public interest, only under rare and special circumstances does he get a pension from the Constabulary.

Qualifying for a pension is usually left up to the discretion of the Police Services Commission, which could act on its own or based upon a recommendation from the commissioner of police, the Observer was told.

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