ATTORNEY Bert Samuels said Tuesday that some of his clients who are members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) have alleged that a number of their colleagues engage in wrongdoing and go to lengths in order to cover up these acts afterwards.

Samuels was among a group of protesters dressed in black who gathered in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew, decrying a spike in police killings and reports of citizens being abused at the hands of members of the JCF.

The two-hour protest was organised by human rights group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), which has appealed profusely for members of the security forces to be equipped with body-cameras when going on operations, especially those that are planned. The group reiterated those calls on Tuesdays, garnering the attention of hundreds of commuters travelling through the usually busy Half-Way-Tree.

The police, including senior ranking officers, were on spot to protect those participating in the protest and to maintain law and order.

“I have represented several police officers and I represent them passionately. It is those police officers who have confessed to me about some of the wrongdoings by their colleagues. There are law-abiding police officers, but what is happening is that the police high command is protecting the wrongdoers. All they are putting out is the statistics of how crime is down. Police killing is up, while civilian crime is down. Isn’t that an irony?” Samuels said.

Between January 1 and April 26 this year, 225 people were murdered across Jamaica. That represented a 36.6 per cent reduction in murders when compared to the same period in 2024 when 355 people were killed. At the same time, just under 110 have been killed by the security since the start of this year.

“My view is that persons should be taken before the courts, they should not be executed by the police force. Body cameras should be mandatory. Why do you need to put a mask on and refuse a camera if what you are doing is lawful? The reason why you don’t want to wear a body camera and you are putting on your mask with no numbers is because you are acting like a criminal.

“Where a man wants to rob a bank he puts a mask on so that his identity can’t be known. The police are hiding their identity because they don’t believe in accountability. If they are under attack, the cameras will protect them. Any man who pulls a gun at a police officer, his body camera will explain why he had to kill him. Why do you not want to wear a camera that can explain your lawful conduct? It is because you contemplate to do evil,” Samuels stated.

The controversial attorney, pointed to two cases in which the actions of the police were deemed questionable.

“People want facts to show that police are carrying out extra-judicial killings. Mario Dean’s example will tell you that even in the police station you can lose your life while those who are to serve and protect stand by and participate. Jamaican people know, in broad day light, they beat my friend, a 65-year-old brethren of mine near Cherry Gardens. Four police officers used their gun buts and mashed up his face leaving multiple fracture in his face at quarter past six in the evening. Why could they get away with that? They had on masks and there was no body camera. Sometimes they leave the station to carry out their executions and they dress or undress accordingly.

“I have heard the police commissioner say that they can’t connect the cameras to the system. I can tell you that it is the taxpayers who have paid for those body cameras and to put them aside is to waste public funds. The young men of Jamaica, the communities are anti-police because they see so much brutality put out on their friends, cousins, brothers and mothers. If you want the public to cooperate with the police, the police must align themselves with the community and that is the only way crime is going to solved,” Samuels added.

Mickel Jackson, executive director of JFJ, said it is not right for the public to be kept in the dark regarding a timeline for body-worn cameras to be mandatory, especially when the police are going on planned operations.

As far as she is concerned, that is a one way for the police to show that they are not acting above the law. She pointed out that Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake has said that the police force has 750 body-worn cameras and pondered where those cameras are in instances of police fatal shootings.

“You have planned operations accounting for 40 per cent of the police fatal shootings in 2024. Where were the body-worn cameras in those instances? The Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) has also made the call that we need body-worn cameras to be assigned when there are planned and tactical operations and it is a call JFJ has also made.

“JFJ is about State accountability. You need a JFJ. Our history in human rights in Jamaica is firm.

“Body-worn cameras will help us with accountability, would give us independent account of the incidents that are often controversial and where there is conflicted accounts between the police and the citizens. I reiterate that we need clear timeliness from the JCF in terms of when the data storage infrastructure [for these cameras] will be put in place. I don’t think we can keep hearing that as the reason why we don’t have full deployment. Say to the people that by July 2026 we are going to have it,” she suggested.

In the midst of the protesters was one woman, who gave her name as Rose, who expressed her full support for the police.

“Why when a criminal goes out and kills a family these people don’t come out and say they must stop the killing? As the police kill one, all of them come out. Why? There must be justice for all. Police just doesn’t go kill anybody at random. They get information. What are these people protesting? I didn’t understand. I am not saying the police are angels. They are from a corrupt society, so some of them are corrupt, but if anything happens to me at my yard a police me a guh call,” said the woman.