LUCIUS Thomas completes his first year as police commissioner this Thursday itching to continue an internal anti-corruption drive that, he said, has so far rid the constabulary of at least 50 cops since January 2005.

At the same time, Thomas is pushing his officers on a relentless drive to win back public trust ruined by years of police abuse and killings of citizens that, in most instances, are alleged to be extra-judicial.

“That is one of my biggest aims before I depart from this organisation,” Thomas said of the anti-corruption drive.

“It’s slow, it’s going to be slow, but we’ve begun to clean up the organisation.”

On the issue, though, Thomas appears to be a realist, as he admits that the constabulary will never be free of corruption. His intention, he told the Sunday Observer last week, was to get it to a level where it becomes an exception, rather than the norm.

He said the setting up last year of the Professional Standards Branch (PSB), a merger of police internal investigation units, as well as the constabulary’s anti-corruption policy have helped “to begin to attack this scourge and remove from among us, members who continue to embarrass us . and who continue to set back the organisation”.

Assistant Commissioner Novelette Grant heads the PSB which emerged from the reform and modernisation strategy outlined in the constabulary’s 1998 Corporate Strategy on Crime.

Essentially, the PSB is the umbrella organisation for four units:

. the Internal Affairs and Anti-corruption Unit (IAAU);

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

. the Policy and Research Unit, an amalgamation of the Corporate Strategy Co-ordination Unit and the Planning and Resource Unit; and

. the Performance Monitoring and Auditing Branch.

The PSB, according to Grant, was formed out of recognition of the need for specialised skills to investigate police misconduct and corruption.

For years, the police force has been grappling with the problem of corruption and has organised specialist training for investigators.

Late last month, the Supreme Court granted a stay of execution of the dismissal of eight narcotics cops accused of helping drug couriers to elude airport security and board flights in October last year.

The cops, who were stationed in Montego Bay at the time of the alleged incident, received letters from the Police Services Commission (PSC) in November informing them that arrangements were being made for their retirement from the JCF in the public interest, based on a report of their conduct by the police commissioner.

Their case will be heard on February 8.

On January 6 this year, attorney Arthur Kitchen, who also represents the eight narcotics cops, confirmed that he had filed an application in the Supreme Court for a judicial review of the PSC’s decision the week before to retire another three cops. The accusations against the three have not been made public. However, Kitchen argued that the PSC’s action was unjust and capricious on the basis that the accused cops had not been afforded a fair hearing.

But while the 11 cops await their fate, Commissioner Thomas is adamant that the police force must regain the trust and confidence of Jamaicans if it is to successfully combat the island’s crime problem.

“If the confidence of the people of Jamaica, who we call upon for support on a daily basis, is not shown because of how they perceive us, we’re not going to succeed,” he said.

“The intelligence that we beg for and which we must receive to effectively tackle crime will only come when the majority of the citizens have confidence in us and see us as an organisation they can trust, they can approach and talk to and share information freely.”

He pointed to an advertising campaign now being run by the JCF which informs citizens how they can help the constabulary tackle corruption. The ads also warn of the legal consequences for trying to bribe police officers. “We are tackling the problem in the way it has to be tackled . by taking on both parties involved in the corruption,” Thomas said.

The ads, he said, will continue. He also revealed that the police have been receiving a lot of calls from people who are determined not to yield to any attempt at corruption, and the complainants, he added, are giving statements, a critical element of the police investigation.

“So . I believe that we’re on the right footing, and in the next few years this organisation will be a better organisation,” he said.

Thomas has also placed strong emphasis on community policing to complement his push for a return of public confidence in the constabulary and improved intelligence-gathering. In fact, he has ordered his divisional commanders to hold at least one meeting monthly with residents of communities under their charge and made it clear that sanctions would be applied to those who neglect to have the meetings as it would be regarded as a dereliction of duty.

“We feel it is that important to have those meetings, and if you don’t we’re going to call you in and talk to you,” said Thomas. “Beyond that, we warn you, and the next time we’re going to call the Services Commission for you to answer some questions, because we feel it will break the back of the cycle of people not co-operating with us because we have not gone out to them. We feel it is our duty to reach them. the concept is critical to enhancing our intelligence base.”

The gathering of intelligence and the use of forensics by trained professionals, Thomas insisted, would improve the police’s ability to achieve its ultimate aim of bringing wrongdoers to justice.

The crime clear-up rate, he said, was now in the high 40 per cent to 50 per cent range, but he wants to see it climb to at least 80 per cent. That, he said, would reduce the impetus for people committing crimes.

He pointed to the constabulary’s acquisition of an Integrated Ballistic Information System (IBIS) and an Automatic Fingerprint Information System (AFIS) as a demonstration of the high command’s commitment to technology-based policing.

The US$1.9-million computerised IBIS is used to track firearms and is being developed by the Canadian firm Forensic Technology.

The AFIS, which is being developed by the French firm Sagem SA, costs US$3.6 million. It is a fingerprint recognition system that will be used to digitally record and store the fingerprints of every convicted person.

But human rights advocates are already voicing objection to the AFIS, saying that it could violate individuals’ right to privacy.

But Thomas insisted that the AFIS will actually enhance people’s rights as it will provide information in about half-an-hour, compared to the weeks it now takes the Criminal Records Office.

The IBIS, he said, was being acquired out of a recognition that forensic evidence was becoming more critical to securing convictions.

“More and more the eyewitness is becoming obsolete,” Thomas said, explaining that most people don’t give information about crimes because of fear, delays in the justice system, or because they simply can’t be bothered.

Acquiring the machines and investing in training police investigators have, said the commissioner, helped to boost the constabulary’s investigative skills.

He has also begun a drive to boost morale by visiting police stations islandwide and handing out promotions based on the recommendations of not only divisional commanders, but the rank and file.

The strategy, he said, is helping to nullify any argument about politics or favouritism in promotions.

He intended, he said, to continue listening to the rank and file “the men and women who run this organisation from the standpoint of work”, he called them.

“That, I think, has been one of the most positive things in my tenure so far,” said Thomas. “I say so because of the feedback I am getting, and it’s coming from the people I want it to come from – those at the grassroots. Because when the morale of your troops is down you find it a little bit more difficult to get the job done. But when they know that there is somebody or a group that is willing to go out on a limb and be with them, it makes a difference.”

davidsonv@jamaicaobserver.com