Like their counterparts in many other parts of the world, Jamaican cops are learning to live with a large and growing number of gay and lesbian colleagues, in a profession known to be typically hard on homosexuals.

But the increase in the number of homosexuals has apparently caught the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) off guard. There is no official policy on gays in the constabulary, and while it has been acknowledged that they are many – one cop used the term “rampant” – actual figures have not been compiled.

“We have quite a large number of them (gays and lesbians) in the force but they are not openly acknowledged. They are still in the closet,” said head of the police legal affairs division, Inspector Gladys Brown-Campbell.

Brown-Campbell, a lawyer, also admitted that the force did not have a policy on how they must be treated, and in the absence of official policy on gays, the police force treated homosexual cops as any other members of the force.

“If an offence is reported against them, it is investigated and if proven, they are usually dealt with to the full extent of the law, and that is to place them before the courts,” Brown-Campbell told the Sunday Observer in an interview.

“They are not treated differently from other offenders of the law at all. There is no policy on how to treat them,” she emphasised.

Supporting Brown-Campbell, Police Officers Association (POA) chairman, Superintendent Norman Heywood, insisted that although the force had no policy to deal with homosexuals, the rule of law would be enforced if the offence of buggery was committed by any police officer.

“We still have buggery as an offence on the law books, and if a police officer commits this offence, the rule of law will be enforced,” said Heywood.

But other cops say differently, some alleging that homosexual officers who broke the law were usually transferred to a division of the JCF which they did not want to name but which they said was well-known to the men and women in uniform.

A recent incident in which a senior cop allegedly forced a teenager to have oral sex with him and was sent to that dubious division, is now threatening to drive the issue of homosexuality in the force out into the open.

Sunday Observer sources said disgruntled police personnel assigned to that division have warned they would take “drastic action” soon if the offending policeman, a corporal, was not removed from the division.

The corporal’s colleagues have refused to work with him and are calling on Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas to immediately transfer him “so that we can get on with normal police work”.

Police officers who asked for anonymity told the Sunday Observer that the alleged incident took place in November last year when the 19-year-old youth arrived at the Kingston Divisional Headquarters from deep rural St Elizabeth to spend time with his cousin, a district constable living at the headquarters.

The story is that the corporal invited the youth to accompany him on an assignment in Portmore, St Catherine. On their way back, the cop took the young man to his St Andrew home for lunch and cooked him a “sumptuous meal”.

After lunch, the corporal allegedly slipped an X-rated homosexual movie into his DVD player and attempted to fondle the young man, who resisted. The corporal is then said to have taken out his 9mm service pistol, placed it on a dresser in his bedroom to intimidate the young man and asked to have oral sex with him.

Fearing for his life, the youth complied, but later reported the ordeal to his outraged parents in St Elizabeth who reportedly stormed into the police divisional office and demanded that action be taken against the gay cop.

Police there promised to get to the bottom of the matter, but nothing has so far been done, the parents and enraged cops complained.

A high-ranking divisional commanding officer, who also didn’t want his name called, confirmed the incident in an interview with the Sunday Observer.

“There was a homosexual contact between the sub-officer (corporal) and the young man,” the commanding officer said.

He suggested that the corporal was likely to be transferred from the division, adding that the matter had been dealt with “internally and professionally”.

But the protesting cops at the division declared that they were incensed by their colleague’s conduct, alleging that he was one of five homosexuals now assigned to the division.

They accused the police high command of “dumping” policemen with homosexual tendencies in the division once they get into trouble.

“We are very concerned that our work with thousands of young Jamaicans could be compromised and badly set back if the public, especially parents and guardians, lose faith in us and our effectiveness,” said an inspector who also requested anonymity.

But, if Brown-Campbell is to be believed, the offending cop was not typical of homosexuals in the force, who, she said, were tolerated and respected by their heterosexual colleagues.

“Those who we know are treated with a great level of respect as they themselves are respectful, refined and intelligent, their level of intelligence far outshines persons considered to be normal. The force has quite a number of them, men and women,” she said.

Brown-Campbell gave gay cops high marks for performance, describing them as “the best set of police to work with”.

She said straight cops did not mind working with them, adding that since 2003, the force had developed “a tolerance level as they do not bring their sexual advances to straight cops”.

“They are very professional workers and their colleagues treat them professionally and work with them,” the JCF legal advisor asserted.

Another senior cop suggested that the police force “is just mirroring the ills of the society”.