Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth — Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey says inadequacies relating to Jamaica’s Witness Protection Programme and other issues such as Jamaica’s “informer fi dead” culture are hurting efforts to dismantle criminal gangs and to bring members to justice.

“It’s a complex problem we are dealing with,” Bailey, who has responsibility for criminal investigations, told lay magistrates in a question and answer session following his main address at their annual general meeting in Santa Cruz on Saturday.

Santa Cruz-based dentist Dr Lynden Rose was elected unopposed to lead the Lay Magistrates Association of Jamaica, replacing respected public servant Errol Greene who served as national president for three years.

Speaking just a few days after the collapse of the court case against the Savanna-la-Mar-based Dexter Street Gang (which he did not mention by name) after the key witness disappeared, Bailey reiterated previous claims that the case had been “properly investigated” and that police operatives deserved commendation for their efforts.

He appeared to suggest that in situations of a witness refusing witness protection, the hands of the police are tied, under Jamaican law.

“We have no law to force a witness into a witness protection programme, we have no law to put a witness in custody if he or she is refusing to give evidence,” he said.

Bailey said that even when there was scientific evidence – unlike perceptions gained on TV — that scientific evidence “must be supported by the ‘I see witness’…”

The deputy commissioner said that while the Jamaican anti-gang legislation was established with the “understanding that people who are part of criminal organisations, would testify against the membership, those individuals were not necessarily the most credible witnesses”.

So that “when there are issues relating to credibility, the witness must be put to the test (questioned in court)… to test his credibility”, he said.

In apparent reference to the recent collapsed anti-gang case, Bailey said that “… the reality is that the witness disappeared…” He said the police had tried their best to keep and protect the witness.

Noting that the scientific evidence was “solid, very solid”, Bailey said “We (police) have not given up, we are pursuing other avenues”.

He said the entire situation was made more difficult by Jamaica’s infamous ‘informer fi dead’ culture.

“People are not willing to come forward because of self-interest (self-preservation) and the interest of their families,” he said.

He spoke in general terms of cases which could involve the arrest of up to “50-odd members of one gang”. In such situations, “you have to deal with witnesses; major witnesses have to be placed under the witness protection Programme. In many instances, one man has a wife, two girlfriends and children”.

“Now if you are going to put that witness on the programme you have to take in the entire family… so I am just showing you the challenges and difficulties … You have to determine who must go where ,“ Bailey said.

In seeking to ease the challenges, the police High Command was seeking to create “what we call a witness care department” to deal only with issues and problems involving witnesses.

Sometimes “at midnight”, he told lay magistrates, his officers, had to be trying to resolve conflicts involving witnesses.

To emphasise the degree of difficulty, Bailey noted that witness protection programmes are maintained by the State. “You have to provide accommodation, you have to provide food, income and then you have to work with international partners depending on the nature of the case …It’s really (tough). But we welcome and we encourage people to be a part of the programme. That’s the only way we are going to break the back of the problems we are faced with.”

Bailey noted that in St Andrew South alone, there were 75 gangs, 28 of which were very active.

The “construct” of St Andrew South involving impoverished, deprived, inner-city communities with poor infrastructure and “an environment which shouldn’t even be for human beings…” made it especially hard for police work, he said.

“Any of you ever been to Riverton (Kingston city dump)”? he asked lay magistrates rhetorically. “When you go to Riverton and imagine that people live in that space… we have to police that space. It is a complex problem that we have,” he said.

But Bailey said, the police would not give up.

“We not going to give up, we are going to continue the fight. We have faith and confidence that over time the problem will be solved,” he said, adding that the police were developing creative programmes to make the job of combating gangs easier.

“We are putting a task force together, of different groupings, with different abilities and talents and we hope that once we get it to together (the police will be better able to act on gang investigation),” Bailey said.