Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang yesterday announced plans to realign members of the elite Protective Services Division to front-line crime-fighting.

In a statement to the House of Representatives Dr Chang said the repositioning would involve experienced police officers moving to the front lines where, he believes, they are most needed, while those who remain in the division will receive training in close protection work.

“There is an age-old practice in Jamaica of assigning members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to provide close protection support for public officials. Though well intentioned, this practice is being done on an ad hoc basis, devoid of an objective policy framework or documented protocol,” Dr Chang said.

The result of this, he said, has been the under-utilisation of the skills of law enforcement officers who are trained to combat crime, as well as a gradual ballooning, over time, of the officials who are provided with close protection support.

“This system is untenable and not in the best interest of neither the police, the public officials, nor the wider Jamaican society,” he said.

Chang said that an internal assessment carried out by the JCF in December 2020 indicated that the Protective Services Division ranked among the largest divisions within the force.

“At the time, 515 police officers were assigned to the Protective Services Division, of which 300 were assigned to provide close protection support for public officials. These are officials who, by the nature of their jobs, are deemed to require protective support,” he explained.

“In most instances, however, this protective support does not need to be a trained, experienced police officer. It requires a trained close protection officer. Threats against public officials in Jamaica are low. The Government is, however, mindful of the ever-evolving criminal landscape, and the fact that the duties carried out by some officials are critical to ensuring continuity of the people’s business and the smooth operations of the country,” he said.

“We cannot continue to depend on a haphazard system of assigning police officers to carry out functions that would be better suited for an adjutant, in most cases. We need as many police officers as possible on the front line of crime fighting. The people in the communities who are being tormented by gang violence need these police officers to protect them. Public officials who need this kind of protective support will benefit from a trained CPO (close protection officer); they do not necessarily require a police officer,” he said.

With that in mind, Chang said, the Cabinet examined and approved the Public Officials Protection System Policy which will provide an objective, assessment-based framework for providing close protection support to public officials.

He also explained that the new Public Officials Protection System Policy has six key objectives, including: to define the offices or categories of public officials to whom close protection services are to be applicable, and to stipulate their intended duration of protection; to identify and establish the authority and mechanism for the designation of public officials to receive close protection; to codify a system for security threat classification and operational protocol for response arrangements; and to streamline the administrative process for the assignment of CPOs to public officials, including regularising the conduct of threat assessments;

In addition it will help to promote the efficient and effective deployment of JCF personnel who are assigned as CPOs in a manner that properly manages the demand on the Government’s budget, while adhering to good practices for rest and rotation of personnel; and promote the maintenance of feasible, sustainable levels of manpower in the JCF, available to perform other policing duties in the furtherance of citizen security, maintenance of public order and general law enforcement.