SIX months into his assignment in Jamaica, the salary of Mark Shields, the first of five foreign police officers being recruited to transform the constabulary and its policing tactics, is yet to be finalised by the government, and is unlikely to be resolved this year.

But Shields told the Sunday Observer by telephone last night, as he shopped at Megamart in Kingston, that he was far from penury, saying for now he remains on secondment from, and therefore on the payroll of, the London Metropolitan Police, or “the Met”, as he called it.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said of the delay in finalising his contract. “It makes no real difference to me.”

His salary will be paid by London up to next year, at which point Shields would have completed 30 years with the Met.

At secondment, Shields was a detective chief superintendent, and continues to earn a basic wage in the region of £63,000, he confirmed to the Sunday Observer. But his rank as a detective, plus other benefits that accrue to British cops, would have bumped his take home pay considerably higher.

His basic pay is the equivalent of approximately J$7 million, which is already more than double what the top local police officer, the commissioner, earns.

But Shields – whose posting here as deputy commissioner puts him second in line to police commissioner Lucius Thomas – as well as the other foreigners being recruited at the level of assistant commissioner of police (ACP), are unlikely to accept salaries below their pay packages in their home countries.

The finance ministry and the Police Services Commission are still battling with the challenge of how to structure their contracts, informed sources have revealed, in the face of a disgruntled police force militantly demanding better pay.

Reliable sources say Shields and the incoming ACPs are to be the test cases for performance-based contracts for commissioned police officers, adding that this was one reason for the delay in writing Shields contract, which will become the model for the others.

“My contract will take effect next year,” Shields said last night. At that point he becomes a direct employee of the Jamaican government, but the DCP refused to comment on who will pay him, saying he would divulge no details until the deal was fully structured.

National security ministry chief executive Gilbert Scott told the Sunday Observer that the pay packets of the foreign cops would not be limited to the approved and gazetted range on offer to local police officers.

The incoming ACPs will have the option of negotiating their salaries with the Noel Hylton-led Police Services Commission, Scott said.

The permanent secretary added, however, that the government alone would not be footing the bill, saying the cops’ remuneration would be financed from different sources and that government’s portion would be contained within the approved and gazetted salary range for such officers.

Shields took up his posting here in March as DCP in charge of crime, sharing the crime portfolio with DCP Charles Scarlett, whose salary falls within a gazetted range of $1.87 million and $2.11 million (US$29,000 to US$33,999; £16,800 to £19,000).

ACP salaries peak at $1.76 million (US$27,930; £15,900) per year.

“In a sense, it will be a three-way contribution.” said permanent secretary Scott, suggesting that the cost of salaries for the foreign cops would be co-financed under the international cooperation agreements on security that Jamaica has with foreign governments like the United Kingdom, through state agency Department For International Development (DFID).

“The cost to the Jamaican government will be no more than they pay officers of equivalent rank in the Jamaica Constabulary Force,” said the national security official.

Government sources say that DFID and private sector contributions for the police were expected to amount to some $150 million, but this figure is unconfirmed. There were indications that government officials were themselves unsure how the incoming cops would be paid.

Scott invited the Sunday Observer to make its own inferences on the financial split, while the finance ministry’s deputy financial secretary, Dennis Townsend had failed, up to last night, to respond to queries, despite promises by the ministry.

The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), which has committed assistance to the police to help contain the murder spiral, said its offer does not extend to paying officers.

“We’re not putting up any money for salaries,” said PSOJ president Beverly Lopez. “I cannot speak to that issue.”

Lopez said PSOJ members had made separate pledges of assistance to rebuild police stations, and areas of policing – for example, GraceKennedy, a thriving conglomerate has pledged $5 million, she told the Sunday Observer, while cement manufacturer, Caribbean Cement, will be donating 1,000 bags of cement as needed.

GraceKennedy already has been running training programmes for selected cops on statistical analysis as the force attempts to acculturate itself to a more cerebral form of policing, driven by forensic science and intelligence – as opposed to the raids and dragnets that are now the norm.

The salaries for all Jamaican cops were last raised on April 1, 2003 prior to the public sector wage freeze, according to the latest edition of the Civil Service Establishment (General) Order 2003 obtained by the Sunday Observer, a document that outlines public sector salaries.

The figures range from a low of $380,000 for constables to a high of $2.66 million for the police commissioner.

Rank and file cops – the most senior of whom, the inspector, earns a peak $646,000 per year – are in a stand-off with the government over raise of pay.

The cops, who are non-unionised and therefore not signatories to the wage freeze pact, initially asked for 45 per cent increase over two years, but the finance ministry, having initially offered nothing, has offered a rejected one-off payment of $40,000 per cop.

The Police Federation has now requested that the prime minister intervene in the impasse, having declared utter frustration with the finance ministry and its junior minister, Fitz Jackson.

Jamaica’s ACPs currently earn between $1.55 million and $1.76 million.

But the jurisdictions where the recruitment drive is on pay considerably higher salaries.

While it was also unclear what the equivalent officer ranks to an ACP were in those countries, the Sunday Observer, by sourcing the information on the web sites of the respective police forces, found that lieutenants in the New York Police Department (NYPD), for example, earn approximately US$105,000 per year, which converts to $6.6 million at current exchange rates. An NYPD sergeant earns US$91,000 or $5.7 million, which is ten times the salary of a Jamaican cop of similar rank.

The quotes are inclusive of allowances and overtime pay.

The London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in the United Kingdom quotes salaries of £53,036 for superintendents, which converts to $5.9 million, and £63,345 for chief superintendents or $7.01 million.

Allowances are additional.

In Canada, only the salaries of constables were found on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police site, which quoted a range of C$39,535 for new recruits up to C$64,059 ($2.1m to $3.4m) for constables in the position over three years.

Jamaica’s PSC which got 18 applications for the four ACP slots on offer, said interviews with the applicants were ongoing, the results of which would be advised in a general press release at the end of the process.

Charles Jones, chief personnel officer at the OSC, to which the PSC is appended, refused to even indicate how advanced the process was, saying it was the commission’s tradition to wrap up its work before commenting.

“All I can say is that the process is continuing and as soon as it is completed, a release will be issued,” said Jones.

The government recruiter also advised the Sunday Observer that eventually, the salaries of the foreign cops would also be published, as is done now for the entire force.

PSC chairman Hylton did not return several calls, nor respond to an email, for comment.

clarkelav@jamaicaobserver.com