ARGUING that fresh thinkers were needed to deal with escalating crime, national security minister Dr Peter Phillips came out in strong defence Thursday of the recruitment of foreign cops for senior placement in the police force.

Addressing the Political Leadership Forum as a contender for the presidency of his party and ultimately prime minister, Phillips said bringing in outside expertise served to introduce new approaches as well as crime-fighting techniques to get on top of Jamaica’s serious crime problem. The forum is a weekly series organised by the Department of Government, and Mona School of Business at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Phillips, vying for the presidency of the People’s National Party, was the second of six to face the group of academics to outline his platform. Senator Bruce Golding, leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, was first.

The first foreign recruit, Mark Shields who worked with Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom, took up office March 1 as deputy commissioner in charge of crime.

“Any organisation can incorporate new ideas or new techniques,” said Phillips.

“The UWI is no less of an institution because it recruits professors from Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States.”

Phillips was speaking in the context of the country’s intractable crime problem which he noted was being driven by global forces including the multi-billion dollar international narcotics trade.

Jamaica and other countries in the region are caught in the middle of the trade, becoming central transshipment points, by virtue of their geographic proximity and transport linkages to the chief drug consuming markets in the United States and Europe.

Phillips went on to explain that there was a need for local crime fighting to update the calibre of its recruits generally for a better grasp of the transnational linkages within the drug trade and to employ modern approaches to which those recruits would have been exposed, to combat crime.

“At another level, the fight against crime, which is our gravest national challenge, cannot be won without the application of our finest minds. Our crime-fighting institutions must attract our brightest minds. I am reminded of the fact that the FBI in the USA recently refused more applicants than Harvard University at the same level of competence,” said the national security minister.

“The full range of forensic sciences, investigative technologies and applied technology need to be established at our institutions if Jamaican law enforcement agencies are to be equipped with the highest levels of training.”

The new approaches indicate a subtle shift from the overriding fire power that has become the norm for crime-fighting in Jamaica, to more intelligence and forensics-driven methodologies.

Responding to a question on whether tough cop Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams – who epitomised the former approach – would be returned to active duty to tackle the growing murder rate, Phillips said Adams would not be able to resume duties until he had settled the current murder charges against him, referring to the Crawle case where four persons were gunned down by Adams’ now-disbanded unit.

Phillips hinted, however, that the popular if controversial crime-fighter might be deployed again soon to frontline duty.

“As soon as he is available, we will embark on that,” said Phillips.

bellanfanted@jamaicaobserver.com