Going only by the names, the roll call of senior, some very highly decorated police officers, at the police Inspection Branch, the so-called Never Never Land, is impressive.

The latest to be banished to that virtual graveyard of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), is Superintendent Artice Brown-Getton, a heavyset, motherly looking cop remembered for her soothing down role in the aftermath of police killings in the sprawling slum of Flankers near Montego Bay in October last year.

Making the trek just before that was Superintendent Rosie McDonald-Barker, the former body guard to late prime minister, Michael Manley.

No official is prepared to spell out the real reason why cops are dispatched to the Inspection Branch or what is its specific location. The Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) said it is at 12 Ocean Boulevard in downtown Kingston. However, it is listed at Duke Street, and has also been known to be at the Police Academy in Twickenham Park near Spanish Town, St Catherine.

“We are not making any comments on the administrative transfers. We are not making any comments on the reassignments by the commissioner of police, we are not making any comments at all,” declares Donovan Nelson, the public information spokesman for the National Security Ministry.

And officers in the Police Officers’ Association, apparently fearful of potential reprisal, also declined to comment when reached by the Sunday Observer. Attempts at a response were met with “no comment” or “no comments at all”.

Chairman of the Police Federation, Sergeant David White, would only say: “The commissioner of police has absolute authority to transfer with immediate effect and to anywhere, any member of the JCF, and the Inspection Branch is one such area to which persons can be transferred.”

But it has been an open secret that it is those who fall out of grace, for one reason or another, who end up there. They are mostly high ranking members of the police officer corps who are being investigated for alleged corruption.

Some Never Never Landers are not themselves corrupt, but are deemed to have been duped by cops on the take who are under their supervision. McDonald-Barker is widely believed to be one such.

Officially, the JCF insists that the Inspection Branch is legitimate and important to the force.

“That section of the force has an oversight responsibility for all police stations islandwide. That includes inspection of the physical surroundings of stations, conditions of buildings and the evaluation of the stations’ record-keeping ability,” says Inspector Victor George Henry, operations manager of the CCN, the information arm of the force.

The branch, Henry tells the Sunday Observer, must also make sure that specific records, such as the crime and station diaries are kept. The station diary records all events, including dispatch and return of police personnel and vehicles, and matters under investigation.

Asked how did the branch develop the perception that it is a place where the police commissioner sends cops he can’t immediately fire, he said: “The perception that it is a worthless branch of the force is an erroneous one. But I suspect that people do not place the same level of importance there as they would to their own divisions.”

Henry was unable to say what the staff compliment of the Inspection Branch was, or who headed the Branch.

Historically, the perception is traced to Colonel Trevor MacMillan, who became police commissioner in 1993. In an unprecedented action, MacMillan transferred nearly all members of the Canine Division of the Police Force to the branch, assigning them to what was seen as a non-job – to “count traffic tickets issued over the years, look at the outcome of those cases, and produce reports”.

MacMillan, too, may have inadvertently dubbed it Never Never Land: “I don’t remember the full details of what happened, but I know that almost the entire membership of the Canine Division was sent there,” he told the Sunday Observer. Neither could he immediately recall clearly the events which led to the transfers.

But reliable sources at the time said MacMillan realised that the dogs used by the Canine Division were de-sensitised and were not picking up drugs in luggage at the island’s ports, even when they were deliberately placed there.

Asked how the name became a fixture, MacMillan said: “I remember addressing a luncheon one day and the Canine transfer was very topical. I referred to it in my address and remember saying that as far as I was concerned the police were in never, never land.”

The speech made good copy and the media latched onto the sound byte “never never land”, making it into a popular epitaph.

One of the most high profile cops to be exiled in Never Never Land was the now retired deputy commissioner, Leslie Harper, one of the earliest policemen to be trained as a lawyer and who is now in private practice. Harper, in the running at the time for commissioner, is said to have fallen out of grace with MacMillan who beat him to the job.

MacMillan declined to discuss the details of that case with the newspaper. But the trek to Never Never Land since then has been steady.

It has become the temporary home of another deputy commissioner, Owen Clunie, who is now said to be at a “special Never Never Land” in Spanish Town, after his high profiled assignment to the Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI). Police force insiders contend that Clunie fell out of grace with current commissioner, Francis Forbes, after drug trafficking allegations swirled around him. However, investigations subsequently cleared Clunie.

Another ‘special’ branch of Never Never Land is said to be located at the Mobile Reserve in East Kingston, where well known Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams is the officer on inspection duties there. Adams was never accused of corruption, but for his role in several killings by his now-disbanded Crime Management Unit (CMU) under questionable circumstances.

The roll call at Never Never Land also lists other top brass including:

. Superintendent Glenford Hudson of the Portmore Police, whose division is under investigation for the disappearance of at least three firearms;

. Senior Superintendent Claude Samuels, who was implicated in the issuance of a gun license to entertainer Vybz Kartel. That licence has since been revoked, and Samuels has reportedly asked to be considered for early retirement, five years early;

. Superintendent Que Morgan, former divisional commander of Mandeville;

. Superintendent Kenneth Wade, former divisional commander in Constant Spring before he was carted off there, several years ago; and

. Superintendent Harry “Bungles” Daley, who headed the Western Police Division in the Corporate Area.

Almost 90 per cent of the cases and officers being investigated involve the issuing of, or investigation into firearms.

“It is clearly a place for corrupt cops. Most of the people there are under investigation for something bad, but the sad part of it is that even if you are cleared, as in the case of Clunie, there is no redemption,” said a member of the public who declined to give his name.

A businesswoman entertaining associates at a well known Kingston hotel poolside, was also cynical: “Never Never Land is a place where you can… do crossword puzzles, count money, go on the road when you want, and no one can say anything, because everybody there is a boss.”

But Opposition spokesman on national security, Derrick Smith, says taxpayers are being shortchanged with the transfer of these ranked and well-experienced officers to the Inspection Branch.

Contacted by the Sunday Observer yesterday, Smith adds: “The Opposition does not believe in the concept of Never Never Land. We believe that if the Police High Command has information of impropriety, it should be made into evidence for prosecution. Where there is evidence, the Police Services Commission should act in the interest of the taxpayers and dismiss any officers against whom there is evidence.”

University Professor and criminologist, Anthony Harriott believes that the transfer of these officers to the Inspection Branch does not help the Jamaican taxpayers, and neither does it help the police.

Harriott argues that there needs to be a review of the rules which came on stream at the dawn of Independence to prevent political interference, but which now make it near impossible to fire people.

He says the benefits of the insulation have now created the “negative problem of getting rid of those who should be out of the system”.

The limitations to the disciplinary functions of the force have left the commissioner with the option of transferring officers to this branch, in turn creating negative connotations, Harriott contends.