INNER-CITY Grants Pen, scene of sporadic outbreaks of political and gang violence often involving the gun, is to be the first test case for a joint United States-American Chamber of Commerce programme that has as its centrepiece a dramatic reduction in the use of deadly force by police.

On Friday, the first 43 cops who underwent training to use community policing as part of a US$3.5-million initiative known as the Democracy and Governance Project, graduated from the 40-hour course with a sober charge from Tilford Johnson, the senior deputy police commissioner.

“I would like to challenge the participants of this course to return to the stations and communities that they are assigned and endeavour to be ambassadors for contributing positively to the partnership which we seek with community members,” said Johnson during the graduation ceremony at the Medallion Hall Hotel in St Andrew.

The one-year project is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the American Chamber of Commerce.

One aim, course organisers said, was ultimately to improve public confidence in the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s ability to carry out police function in the Grants Pen and Standpipe inner-city communities.

Johnson urged the graduating cops to lead the way in improving the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s performance.

His remarks came against the background of recent incidents that have again called into question the professionalism of Jamaica’s police. They included a police shooting in Flankers, Montego Bay, in which two senior citizens died in questionable circumstances and a downtown Kingston disturbance in which a JUTC bus conductress was beaten, causing bus drivers to block the streets.

The graduating class comprising rookies and veteran officers received its training from four American police instructors who also work as police officers. They were associated with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a Washington D C-based think tank that deals with good law enforcement practices.

According to Clifford Diamond, a senior research associate with PERF, instructions included the use of “less-lethal tactics, how to deal with tense encounters with either empty hands or with tools other than firearms or batons”.

Diamond said PERF’s help was originally solicited by Jamaica’s American Chamber of Commerce and had the blessing of the Jamaican Government.

He advised the graduates that change won’t happen overnight. “It’s very, very difficult to change a culture, whether it’s the police culture or whether it’s the community at large. But, from my work in Grants Pen to date, I know that there is a desire by both the police and the citizens in Grants Pen to see some change, and to see a joint effort to try and resolve some problems, and that’s the focus of our work.”

One of the graduates, Detective Corporal Paul Lambert, told fellow officers that “we are now prepared to be tested”.

Karen Turner, mission director for the USAID/Jamaica-Caribbean Regional Programme, was hopeful. “If we can achieve success in Grants Pen, and this success can be replicated in other communities, the ripple effect throughout the island will be incredible,” she said.

Elaborating on the programme, Turner said that in addition to training police, it offers educational programmes to residents, will mentor primary school students, and will offer services designed to reduce domestic violence.

The American Chamber of Commerce, she noted, was helping to establish a community police station in Grants Pen, which would include a police post and other social services.