FOR 30 years the Jamaica Constabulary Force has disgraced every security minister, Cabinet and the people of Jamaica. Every prime minister trusted it and was let down. They get better pay, vehicles, weapons, protective gear, JDF and outside help, etc, and still they cannot protect us. We hold the world record in murder and carnage. The fault is not in their tools but in themselves. When do we say, “Enough”? This week, Tiger Woods and Akio Toyoda (head of Toyota) apologised to the world for a flawed life and bad car brakes. When will the police apologise to the widows, orphans, the nation, come clean and submit to radical transformation?

Cabinet is accountable, but neither they nor the JCF are serious about our security. They attend funerals and make speeches but nothing changes. A failed commissioner or minister moves on with no sanctions for his failure. Cabinet is complicit in the murders of 1680 people in 2009 and blood is on the hands of the minister and JCF. They do not know how to protect us and they will not spend on new ideas!

In contrast, look how quickly Cabinet reacts when rich people’s money is in danger! Check this! In a month they created three agencies to defend big money. They also have billions on standby in BOJ to rescue banks and the rich who may suffer loss in the JDX scheme, yet they have no special funds to rescue us from murder. Cabinet pays millions to inquire how their friends lost their riches but no inquiry into how 1680 citizens lost their lives. God forbid, but the murder or kidnap of white tourists, government ministers or embassy people might be our only hope, as Haiti proves that a calamity can focus politicians’ minds on solutions. When will the nation get angry and see some drastic action?

Last year we murdered more citizens here than British soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Over 1000 children went missing, many women raped – yet DCP Hinds whose job is our security says the church is not aiding the JCF. Is the JCF aiding the church? Strange, the police can’t run their own shop but have time to tell churches how to run theirs.

The police are paid to detect and control crime. Low crime numbers calm the public and free police of outside pressure to get on with the job, but it is erratic. They caught some of their own red-handed, then gave the Munster Road crew an on-the-spot payoff, just as corrupt street cops collect bribes. Very strange! Is this a “set han’”? If the JCF can give instant public rewards to its officers, why not instant punishment as well?

The Cabinet and the JCF are mistaken. Crime is huge, but it is fear that paralyses lives and production. Can they free the nation from fear? First, the police must do their job well. What else? Build public confidence! Minister Nelson is a good man. Would you confidently follow him into the valley of death and fear no evil? A union man, he keeps JCF salary demands in check; thinks there are too many guns; that we should not harbour Haiti’s criminals or marry them and that we need laws to “reduce crime, and dismantle criminal networks”. Wow! Great news? This is verandah talk – no bright ideas here. Intelligence uncovers a network and gets convictions, not laws. Victory begins in the mind! To win, we must believe that we can win! We want to believe, but the JCF is not credible!

Mr Ellington is a good man and the best of those vetted. But consider this: he emerges from a failed system, a top man who did not have a different idea – just a wheel among wheels, but he may be a closet innovator so let’s wait and see! Asymmetry is the core of successful security. Was Munster Road a sting? Man “gie weh him fren dem”? Or accident? His confidence in the system is not inspiring. Sir, please prove me wrong. The JCF exists because we cannot replace it, but a second elite National Security Bureau – to absorb the Organised Crime Unit may provide a new strategic and tactical milieu and the asymmetry our security needs. Out-of-work bankers, lawyers and managers are joining British security services which prize highcalibre people for intelligence work. They have more PhDs in maths, psychology, science and IT than UWI. Policing is craft, so who does intelligence work for our police? What are their qualifications? Without an NSB we have no careers for high-talent people in the security forces so they go to the US and we borrow. We want to be “world-class” but won’t do what it takes. The JCF and the JDF are symmetrical forces so there is no harm merging them, but there is no advantage either. Yes, 1680 and counting!

If the JCF had crime solutions we would not be in crisis. The JCF is an example of what decades of prejudice against women and qualified people can do. It needs top civilian experts to get it up to speed. Today, it is the “weekend warriors” – the scientists, lawyers, teachers, managers – in the US National Guard and UK Home Guard who are making the difference in Iraq and Afghanistan, and so news of a likely scheme for civilians to team up with our police is welcome. Police fear of qualified, sentient civilians working beside them must be allayed. They need self-esteem training. Any new scheme must use civilian and police experts and strategists as the JCF needs brainpower more than manpower. The JCF is squarely to blame for the crime and fear gripping the island. As a result, we face a mass migration of young professionals. We need them! They don’t want to go, but fear is palpable. The price of success here is envy, not praise; murder, kids kidnapped and restless night is our norm. Cabinet must act. Well-off people took umbrage at Manley’s “five flights”, sold their assets, took their money and left. The young brains we need can’t afford a house, but can board a flight with their computers – gone in 15 seconds! Bruce, we can have a quantum leap in security by this civilian-led NSB, and the IMF must be told that we need to use some of the money held to rescue investors, to rescue our murdered nation and banish fear – a prerequisite to economic growth. No peace, no prosperity! Stay conscious!

Kudos

Congratulations to Usain on his honorary PhD from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland!

Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants, currently on assignment in the UK.

franklinjohnston@hotmail.com