ROSE HALL, St James — Security Minister, Dr Horace Chang is convinced that current investments being made in Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) should be enough to prevent the need to give the top job to outsiders, going forward.

“We are committed to ensuring that the future commissioner of the police force, as well as officers of the force, will emerge from within the force — not only the commissioner level but all levels,” he said.

The minister was speaking at the Jamaica Police Federation’s annual conference that began at Hilton Hotel in Rose Hall, Montego Bay, on Tuesday. During his address to rank and file members of the JCF the minister spoke of the progress made by staff within the organisation’s ranks.

The country’s top cop is currently Dr Kevin Blake, who was promoted from within the JCF. However his predecessor, Major General Anthony Anderson who led the force from 2018 until earlier this year, was a former chief of defence staff for Jamaica Defence Force. He is among non-JCF members from inside and outside of Jamaica who have led the JCF over the years.

Dr Chang appears to think those days are over.

“We welcome technical support from partners internationally and otherwise in the private sector but the operations, the command structure of the force, must be led by Jamaicans who are trained and developed with the Jamaican police force,” he said.

The security minister, who is also the deputy prime minister, insisted that there are qualified leaders inside JCF.

“The Jamaican society and the Jamaican police force has men and women who have the capacity to lead effectively, to take on the challenges of law and order, good peace within the society, but also to ensure that they maintain within the ranks of the force quality, professionalism and good ethics,” said Dr Chang.

“I take a level of satisfaction that we have made remarkable progress in this area in terms of naturally nurturing and building the talent within the force by the many programmes, a different way of promotions, [and by being] more transparent,” he added.

He stressed the importance of getting the human resources part of JCF right, and said significant advances have been made in that area. The security minister once again pointed to the calibre of recruits and the increasingly impressive individuals who opt to serve within the police force. It is a point often made as efforts are made to improve the quality of those serving.

“I find, at the graduation, I am seeing some of the best and the brightest of Jamaica’s men and women in the police force. They’re staying in the force, and we need to keep them there to do the job,” said Dr Chang.

“We are going to maintain that level. [We] may have to go a bit further — and those discussions I have [had] with your commanders, and we gave a commitment, and we are training those forces,” he continued.

The minister also told the meeting that the leadership cohort within the organisation needs to be expanded to meet the demands that now exist.

“It’s only fair that men and women who have experience and have taken command of units, even small units, should have the required statutes to operate,” he said.

“We are working with the commissioner to ensure that we can increase the levels of officer core from less than three per cent to at least 3.5 per cent over the next 24 months,” he said to applause from the gathering.

He anticipates that this will impact the lower levels and that more sub-officer ranks will become available when those members are elevated to the ranks of officers.