THE Jamaica Constabulary Force is to merge a number of its investigative arms to form one unit whose core function will be to target and investigate police misconduct, especially corruption.

The Internal Affairs and Anti-Corruption Unit (IAAU) will be an off-shoot of the current Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) – the intelligence arm of the Police force – after the IAU’s merger with the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI).

“We are hoping to have the branch up and running by the launch of the new corporate strategy next year, and one of the things that we will be paying specific attention to, is misconduct – especially corruption,” Assistant

Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant told the Observer.

While the IAAU will specifically target corrupt cops, it will also seek to clear the names of police officers who have been wrongly accused of misconduct.

ACP Grant said under the reform and modernisation process outlined in the JCF’s 1998 Corporate Strategy on Crime, the police will have a Professional Standards Branch (PSB) which will pull together disparate units that are already functioning.

The PSB will be the umbrella organisation for four new units that are to come on-stream shortly.

Along with the IAAU, the new units are:

. the Legal Affairs Unit, which will utilise the services of policemen and policewomen who are lawyers;

. the Policy and Research Unit – which will be the amalgamation of the Corporate Strategy Co-ordination Unit and the Planning and Resource Unit; and

. the Performance Monitoring and Auditing Branch.

For years, said ACP Grant, corruption has formed part of general investigations within the force. Now it needs a special focus.

“We now recognise that investigating police misconduct and even corruption cannot be done in a general way. It takes a special kind of investigation to investigate police corruption and the Commissioner and the rank of the JCF are committed to that,” she said.

ACP Grant, who heads the Reform and Modernisation arm of the Corporate Strategy Department, said the formation of the unit was recommended as the best option after analyses of the various units examining police misconduct.

Public education, the senior cop stressed, would be a vital component of the unit’s attempts to weed out corruption within the Force.

“One of the things that we are trying to say to the public, is that when the police approach you with a consideration not to enforce the law, resist and say no and complain loudly,” she said, adding that the unit will also seek to exonerate police officers who have been wrongly accused of corruption.

Many members of the Force have been wrongly labelled, and or perceived to be corrupt, ACP Grant said.

“Investigations will therefore clear or catch corrupt cops,” she explained.

There have been several initiatives and units proposed and/or launched over the years to help curb major crimes, fight criminal gangs and rein in corruption in the society in general.

In his budget speech on April 27, 2004, for example, Prime Minister P J Patterson announced the National Investigative Authority, a separate entity from the JCF that would draw on resources outside of the Force. Supported by Scotland Yard, the unit would be structured to “provide public accountability reports to satisfy the imperatives of transparency”.

On May 17, Information Minister Burchell Whiteman said Cabinet had instructed that the appropriate legislation be drafted and the necessary amendments made to existing laws for the NIA to take effect. Since then, very little has been said about the unit.

Then there was the National Security Strategy that was to have gone before Cabinet this September. Headed by Rear Admiral Peter Brady, the NSS was to identify main threats to security and economic development.

However, some aspects of the National Intelligence Bureau, mandated to coordinate activities of all existing investigative units across all police divisions, have been put in place in St James, South St Catherine, Manchester and St Andrew South.