Rights advocate Carla Gullotta is urging the police to accept, rather than rebuff, recommendations to remove public suspicion about their actions during planned operations, even as she admitted being sympathetic to the dangers cops face during encounters with gunmen.

“Don’t think I don’t sympathise with police officers, I do, because I know how difficult it is in some areas to go and find themselves where bad men are just shooting at them, I know it. They have all my sympathy, but my sympathy is also towards their ensuring that whatever is being done by the police cannot be criticised because they are doing the right thing,” Gullotta, the executive director of Stand Up For Jamaica (SUFJ), told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

Gullotta was responding to the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) report tabled in Parliament last week pointing out that 47 members of the constabulary have been charged with criminal offences during the period January 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025. Of that number, 13 have been charged with murder, and the greater majority relate to assault allegations.

According to Indecom, in the five years since 2021 the number of people killed in security force shooting incidents have increased each year, and particularly in 2024 and 2025.

The commission said in 2019 the number of people killed during a planned police operation (PPO) was the lowest, at 10, while in 2021 PPO fatalities numbered 11. It stated, however, that, “since 2022 there has been a marked and disquieting increase in fatal shootings occurring during PPOs”.

Indecom also said “from the low of 11 persons fatally wounded in 2021, to 76 in 2024… represents a 591 per cent increase in deaths arising from planned police operations in 36 months”.

“This continuing policing tactic is observed in the first seven months of 2025 (January – July), where 97 people have been killed during PPOs, representing 51 per cent of the 190 fatalities in 2025 (at 31 July),” Indecom said.

For the SUFJ executive director, “this increase of fatal shootings is alarming”.

“It has increased about 78 per cent if you compare it to the year before. It is requiring a different approach because people are losing their life. I don’t want it to be said that I am defending the murderers, I don’t. But I think that if they are apprehended and brought before justice it would set a better example,” she said.

“Some of them might be innocent victims. Some of them become victims if the way they have been killed is to be criticised. But if you get somebody who is in conflict with the law and bring them to justice, justice should guarantee that the person is punished in the right way,” Gullotta argued.

She said the police high command should view the recommendations as coming from an ally and not the enemy.

“I was reading where the commissioner was saying they don’t want to be lectured by anyone. I know he is the head of the police and it is his duty to defend his people, but on the other hand the police, ourselves, Indecom, and everybody has a common goal, which is a more peaceful Jamaica, and avoiding old circumstances which might create a sort of mistrust between citizens and police. The imperative is simple: Make sure that what the police [are] doing in difficult situations is not questionable. That, I think, is a must,” Gullotta said.

“My reaction to the full document is that I see an attempt to draft a professional profile which guarantees that there is no spot of darkness between what’s happening in police actions during police planned operations and Jamaicans. I think this is the most important thing. I see that as a big professional effort in promoting the sort of code which will help everybody to trust what is going on without these daily problems arising from some actions which sometimes are not completely transparent,” she said.

“I think it is giving an instrument to the police to act in a way that nobody can criticise what they do because they stick with the rules and regulations proposed in the 11 points and also reassure Jamaicans that what is happening is not beyond questioning. This document from Indecom can be a very useful instrument to go that way where nobody can say the police behaviour is unprofessional, violent, or is not reflecting what the police body represents,” she added.

Last weekend, the Constabulary Communications Network (CCN) issued a release highlighting aspects of Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake’s column in the latest force orders.

Pointing to the recent murder of four-year-old Shannon Gordon and four others in Commodore, St Catherine, CCN defended the commissioner’s comments, saying the murders demand a response that goes beyond grief or outrage; they demand moral clarity.

The police information arm pointed out that, in his latest column, Blake is sharply critical of any narrative that seeks to blur the line between perpetrators and victims.

“Many who see murders and shooting injuries as mere numbers and percentages want us to believe that these hoodlums are to be treated as young men who the State has failed,” Blake said.

He challenged the notion that criminality is an inevitable consequence of poverty or neglect, and argued that structural hardship does not explain the choice to take a life.

At the same time, Blake reaffirmed his commitment to accountability, saying, “Any loss of life, especially in the context of police action, must be subject to serious and independent review.”

Added Blake: “In a democratic society, law enforcement agencies must be subject to public evaluation. But that evaluation must be rooted in fact, not ideology. It must hold fast to the principle that criticism should illuminate truth; not obscure it.”

CCN described Blake’s commentary as an appeal to purpose as well as a call to the nation that we do not honour the memory of our dead by weeping alone, but by confronting the systems, behaviours, and moral failures that enabled their deaths.

It also hailed the column as a manifesto for resolve that recognises that safety is not a partisan issue. It is a social contract.

“The JCF’s mission, as he reminds us, is not simply to police communities. It is to protect their future, to guard the innocence of children asleep in their homes,” CCN said.

In the meantime, Gullotta, on Monday, highlighted Indecom’s plug for the use of body-worn cameras and the presence of senior police officers on planned operations.

“In 80 per cent of episodes there is no body-worn camera [which] would also be something which would be safer for the police because if you are the police and you are under attack and in the body camera images you see that somebody is shooting after the police officer, then obviously the officer will shoot [back]; it’s not going to be questionable,” she opined.

“I welcome the recommendations for the presence of a senior officer [in these instances]. The police have been recruiting a lot of young ones who might not have the experience on the ground to deal with difficult situations, which can be dangerous. So I think the presence of senior officers should guide the young ones about how to handle situations, how to approach an area, et cetera,” Gullotta told the Observer.

Noting Indecom’s disquiet about the presence of police who were involved in suspicious shootings in the ranks of the Fugitive Apprehension Teams which, it said, has accounted for growing fatalities, Gullotta suggested that “they should not be part of those challenging and delicate operations”.

She said the constabulary should, in the meantime, deepen its community relations as part of its crime-fighting strategy.

“There is something I have learned over the years working in volatile communities, very often the relationship between police and residents is quite tense. People do not trust the police, people criticise the police, people burn tyres because they say what has been happening is cold-blooded murder; that is not helpful. Community policing should be one of the keys to fight crime and violence. I think that all of us are on the same page when we think about the fact that Jamaica needs to address a huge and extended crime and violence reality and problem,” Gullotta said and expressed hope that the Indecom report “will promote dialogue”.

GULLOTTA… Indecom report is giving an instrument to the police to act in a way that nobody can criticise what they do because they stick with the rules and regulations

BLAKE… in a democratic society, law enforcement agencies must be subject to public evaluation but that evaluation must be rooted in fact, not ideology