I was in a recent radio interview when the subject of celebrity cases or notorious cases being treated differently than normal cases by law enforcement came up. This to include murder.

I immediately tried to shut it down. I am not sure how successful I was but I did realise that the public does not understand how procedural murder investigation has become. These are not the days when the investigation of the murder was totally under the ambit of the investigator. Times have changed.

You don’t own your murder case as an investigator, it’s the division’s murder. There are case conferences, specific procedural guidelines and checks and balances that are overseen by the senior officer in charge of crime, the divisional detective inspector and the crime chief of the division. Then, of course, you have the area Criminal Investigations Branch (CIB) overseeing what the division is doing.

This same regulation exists when the case is being handled by the Major Investigation Division. With them, the cases belong to teams rather than single investigators, and these teams are overseen during a weekly examination of each case. To top it off, you have CIB HQ watching your every move and ensuring that you follow procedure.

This is precisely the reason that Jamaica’s clear-up rate for murder is comparable to the annual clear-up rate of the United States. This is why in 2022 the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) cleared up 300 more murders than the New York Police Department (NYPD) despite being a quarter their size.

Why, therefore, does it appear that the murders of known persons, children or mass murder, get solved so quickly? The difference really is you. You, the public, respond differently to notorious murders that impact the innocent, the famous or the large in numbers. You, in fact, get involved in the process, you give us information, you allow us access to your CCTV footage without us having to force you.

This extends even to people directly around the offender. They don’t tolerate certain types of murders — children, popular, productive people and indiscriminate killing. Those stimulate people to participate in the investigative process. Trust me, this makes a lot of difference.

Then there is that line in the sand. Jamaicans don’t like becoming witnesses. However, I have seen poor people who cannot protect themselves become witnesses and discombobulate their lives because their line in the sand is drawn at the killing of children, or women, or persons who just didn’t have it coming.

The victim many times determines the degree of public participation. The more innocent, the more information. It doesn’t stop here. If you need evidence from a witness they will often give a statement, attend an identification parade and participate in a trial.

The issue, however, is that based on my study: Gangs, Victim offender /overlap and informal settlements; their role in the Portmore Homicide Crisis, conducted in 2022, I was able to determine that approximately 78 per cent of all victims had some linkage or involvement with gangs, ranging from member to associate.

Jamaicans mark hard if you associate with “dem criminal bwoy”, you had it coming. If you are a member of a gang, “you shoulda dead long time”. These are their sentiments, not mine. They are not going to put themselves at any risk whatsoever “fi de tiefing bwoy”. They will pass information or giving evidence.

This intolerance has grown consistently over the last 40 years and it is now a national feeling. Jamaica is fed up with the gangs, other than, of course, Jamaicans For Justice, who have a renewed energy because they realise that their prosecutorial arm Indecom cannot give them the results they want.

Unfortunately, for them, Jamaica is fed up of them too. Will our murder clear-up rate one day surpass that of the United States? Let’s discuss.

Well, they are usually just a few points apart. I have worked with both groups, I have trained with both groups. Pound for pound, our guys are better. The Americans have quicker access to science, but not necessarily better science. DNA is DNA. Fingerprints are fingerprints. They have more leverage because it’s easier for them to cut out the defence counsel. That is a big advantage.

They have faster access to phone records at every stage. Our workload is higher per detective because our murder rate is nine times theirs. We are overburdened, but we therefore have more practice. Jamaica is consistently over 50 per cent and the United States is usually 60 per cent or under.

The answer to the question, therefore, is dependent on the type of murders we have going forward. If we have more domestic murders, we will likely have more clear up. Family is intolerant of in-laws killing their siblings. If we have more murders from robbery, it is highly possible that more people will get involved in bringing the killers to justice.

If we have killers killing killers then the clear-up rate will go through two dynamics. One is that men who lead violent lives usually end up being killed themselves. Love, like it, or dislike it, this is the reality.

Remember that study, 78 per cent of victims that are gangster themselves? Well, these victims often kill quite a bit before getting killed themselves, thus resulting in post humus clear-up.

On the flip side, the public shows no interest when killers become victims of a homicide. There is also the fact that the only murders that the public are interested in are murders that are sensational or involve innocent people.

The public really don’t have a clue how many murders are cleared up. The trials are many times not covered by the media.

So to end this, I hope at the very least that you realise as a member of the public how important it is that you assist in doing your part by passing on information, or even by giving evidence when a murder is committed.

I understand your prejudices, but there are so many avenues to allow for the passing of information that is safe. Don’t do it for them, do it to help take the killers off the streets. That will, in the long run, protect the innocent.

Feedback: drjasonamakay@gmail.com