THE recent revelations of the Don Anderson Poll, commissioned by the RJRGLEANER in June 2025, present an uncomfortable paradox for Jamaica.

Even though official crime statistics show measurable declines in homicides and serious crimes, public trust in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) remains very low. The survey found that most Jamaicans (49.6 per cent) were “not at all confident” (26.2 per cent) or “slightly confident” (23.4 per cent) in the ability of the police to combat crime. However, only 10.2 per cent said they were very confident. Beyond current crime trends, this discrepancy between operational statistics and public sentiment reveals deep structural and psychological fault lines within Jamaica’s social contract.

The Weight of History

Quarterly crime reports are insufficient to foster public trust. The JCF’s relationship with the public is tainted by the tensions of the past. The force was essentially created as a tool of social control rather than collective protection when it was first established in 1867 during colonial rule. An “occupier versus occupied” dynamic was ingrained in marginalised communities by the paramilitary structure and early recruitment bias towards light-skinned Jamaicans; this psychological divide has endured generations after independence. This colonial DNA shows up as institutional habits, such as a preference for hierarchical rigidity over community responsiveness, suspicion over collaboration, and suppression over engagement.

Trust is further corroded by historical trauma. Catastrophic incidents — such as the 2010 Tivoli Gardens incursion, in which 73 civilians perished during a State operation with little accountability — serve as flashpoints for generations. These are living wounds rather than forgotten chapters.

Narratives of institutional betrayal are reinforced by recurring corruption scandals, such as the 2022 St Ann police gun-rental scheme in which officers leased State weapons to gangs. A corrosive suspicion that the JCF serves interests that are different from those of regular Jamaicans is confirmed by each incident.

Trust builds up in droplets but drains in torrents, according to one criminologist. Every scandal resets the trust clock to zero, in addition to harming credibility.

The Psychology of Disbelief

Cognitive science clarifies why declining crime rates don’t reassure people. Negative experiences — such as a violent police stop, the unsolved murder of a relative, or an officer’s extortion — are processed by the human brain with far more neurological intensity than positive information. A single traumatic event can overshadow years of statistical progress because of this “negativity bias”. This is made worse by the “availability heuristic”, which holds that concrete memories of injury have a stronger influence on perception than do arbitrary percentages. National homicide declines are meaningless noise when a mother remembers her son bleeding on the street for hours before the police showed up.

The lack of “procedural justice” is at the heart of this psychological breakdown. Research continuously demonstrates that perceived fairness in the process is more important to public trust than results (arrests, crime rates). Do officers give justifications for their actions? Are they impartial when they listen? Do they treat citizens with respect? What psychologists refer to as “primal insecurity” — a survival-level anxiety in which the organisation tasked with providing safety turns into a threat itself — has been brought about by the JCF’s historical shortcomings in these areas. This explains the poll’s conclusion that, despite quantifiable security improvements, 59.8 per cent of respondents feel less safe now than they did five years ago.

The Fractured Future

The youth of Jamaica are the ones for whom this mistrust is most concerning. According to the survey, 34.2 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 24 say they have “no confidence” in the JCF, a figure that indicates scepticism across generations. Policing frequently takes the form of constant “stop-and-search” procedures that feel more like harassment than protection to young men in unstable neighbourhoods.

Profiling someone based on their address or appearance (dreadlocks, streetwear) sends the dehumanising message: You are presumptively criminal. Because gangs provide predictable, albeit illegal, order and economic opportunity, they appear more dependable than the Government, creating a perverse credibility gap. The moral case for institutional legitimacy dwindles when young people witness gang leaders handling conflicts more quickly than the legal system and filling in for the Government.

Systemic interventions based on psychological realism and historical honesty are necessary to close this trust gap. To change front-line interactions, procedural justice reform needs to go beyond rhetoric. Officers can restore micro-level trust by being trained in the “Four Pillars”: providing a voice, exhibiting neutrality, demonstrating respect, and explaining actions (“We’re stopping vehicles here because of a robbery”). When officers use these procedures, successful pilots in parishes like St James demonstrate a decrease in complaints.

Equally important is radical transparency. Accountability would be shown by posting murder and robbery clearance rates on station-house walls, similar to exam results. Narratives of impunity could be contested by making misconduct investigations and case resolutions publicly available, particularly in areas where mistrust is prevalent, like West Kingston.

Formal reckoning is necessary to confront historical trauma. Despite its flaws, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission showed how healing it can be to admit State violence. To heal the scars from Tivoli, Green Bay, and the death squad era, Jamaica requires its own organised procedure. Reconciliation cannot start until the State formally acknowledges harm.

Lastly, top-down policing needs to give way to community co-production. Power would be redistributed by creating joint safety committees and integrating civilian liaisons into police divisions. Policing changes from being something done to communities to something done with them when citizens participate in the creation of neighbourhood patrol plans or examine body-cam footage.

The Long Road Ahead

The Anderson Poll is more of a mirror reflecting decades of institutional dissonance than a critique of current JCF initiatives. Reductions in homicide rates are an important but inadequate step forward. Healing the nation’s psyche, which has been conditioned by history to expect betrayal, is a more difficult task that requires patience from a scarred public, humility from the political directorate, and leadership from the police. It calls for laws that place just as much emphasis on upholding human dignity as they do on preventing crime.

The lack of trust will persist until Jamaica addresses how colonial policing gave rise to contemporary mistrust and until procedural justice is ingrained rather than performed. The streets may be calmed by security improvements, but souls and the trust fabric can only be restored by moral consistency. If the silence is filled with unheard screams, what good is a quiet street?

Dr Henry Lewis Jr is an associate professor at University of Technology, Jamaica, in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. He is also a social scientist and executive life coach. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or hjlewis@utech.edu.jm.

Henry Lewis