THE police high command has warned members of the force that they will find no protection in its ranks.

The leadership of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) underscored its stance following the arrest of a detective corporal allegedly involved in a motor vehicle robbery in the Corporate Area on Saturday.

“The JCF remains committed to upholding the rule of law without fear or favour. We commend the professionalism and urgency demonstrated by the teams involved in the operation, whose coordinated response ensured a quick resolution and preserved public safety,” said the high command in a release on Sunday.

Members of the JCF are entrusted with extraordinary powers, specialised training, and State resources, and as such, they bear an even greater duty to uphold the law with integrity and accountability.

“The high command of the JCF condemns, in the strongest possible terms, any form of criminal conduct, particularly when perpetrated by those sworn to uphold the law. We will neither tolerate nor conceal wrongdoing in any quarters of the force. Any member who entertains criminal inclinations will find no refuge within our ranks — they will be relentlessly investigated and made to face the full force of the law,” the release added.

That stance was applauded by the human rights group Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ) which agreed that members of the JCF bear a heightened responsibility to uphold the law with integrity.

“It is with that in mind that the involvement of a serving officer in such a serious crime may stand to erode public trust, and it highlights some systemic vulnerabilities within the force and that we do have a far way to go, though we have made remarkable improvement as a country,” JFJ Executive Director Mickel Jackson told the Jamaica Observer on Sunday.

“We have seen here at JFJ that the JCF has come a far way, but I think we have to be guided by what the JCF would be flagging as some of the gaps, areas that would require strengthening. For example, how can we strengthen post-employment vetting and monitoring of our officers so that we can remove unfit officers from the force?

“We know that we have psychological evaluations, we know that through the police college there is ethical training to reinforce professional standards. How can we strengthen some of those training programmes and systems that we have already to try and mitigate the potential for some officers to be involved in unethical practices, some of them unlawful as well? How can we mitigate those things? Those are some of the things that I think we need to be thinking about as a society,” added Jackson.

According to the police, a swift and coordinated response by members of the St Andrew South and St Catherine South police divisions led to the recovery of a stolen motor vehicle and the apprehension of a suspect, who is a serving member of the force.

The police say that approximately 11:10 pm on Saturday they received a report of robbery with aggravation along Coleyville Avenue, Kingston 20.

The complainant, a 19-year-old inDrive taxi operator, reported that he had been robbed at gunpoint by an individual who entered his vehicle and forcibly took control while it was in motion.

The driver managed to escape unharmed and quickly alerted the police.

Acting on the report, the Police Emergency Communication Centre triggered a rapid, cross-divisional operational response and the vehicle was electronically tracked to a location in St Catherine.

Through a coordinated effort involving St Andrew South and St Catherine South police personnel, the vehicle was intercepted and recovered along Dyke Road in the vicinity of the Jam World Complex in Portmore.

During the operation, the police saw a man inside the vehicle who was later identified as a detective corporal.

He was taken into custody on the scene after a search yielded a Glock 17 nine-millimetre service pistol, two magazines, and 34 rounds of ammunition; all Government-issued property of the JCF.

The detective corporal, whose name has not been released, was also in possession of his police identification.

The vehicle was taken to the Greater Portmore Police Station where it was processed by members of the Scene of Crime Unit, and several potential forensic exhibits were collected.

The policeman was taken into custody pending further investigation, which is being led by the Criminal Investigations Branch.