By Robert S. Beers, Gleaner Writer
DOING BUSINESS in Jamaica is complicated by the need for extensive security services which can include hiring some of the 15,000 licensed security guards, paying gangs to investigate crimes, and, allegedly, making payments to the police.
After a report in the Financial Gleaner three weeks ago detailing companies and shop owners making forced payments to Dons, several business owners contacted this newspaper to say that the same behaviour can apply to local police.
"I had my construction site robbed and the constables came and wouldn't even go investigate until I gave them $2,000," said Francis who does not want his real name used, saying he fears the police as much as the Dons.
Francis, a road building subcontractor outside Montego Bay and recent robbery victim said he paid the officers and they accomplished very little. "No arrests, no returned property," he said.
So, Francis called in the local Don.
"He had the stuff back in no time," said Francis and added, "I now pay him $40,000 a week and you can bet nothing has happened since."
Talk of paying police to do their jobs is said in hushed tones of fear, often the operative climate of small business in urban Jamaica. Throughout this report, as they used to say on the old Dragnet television show, some names have been changed to protect the innocent.
James who has a haberdashery downtown said, "Man I talk to you and get problems, Don problems, police problems." In his small shop of men's and women's clothes, with promised anonymity, James said police officers have promised to keep a closer watch on this business if given "frequent Nannys" ($500 bills).
"Business operators have to ensure from all quarters legitimate or illegitimate that they are protected," said George N.D. Overton, President of the Jamaica Society of Industrial Security. "Up to sweetening the situation for those who are paid to protect us."
A former law enforcement official familiar with businesses in Kingston said, "All you have to do is go downtown on Friday night and see all the police cars going in the back of businesses, they are not on official police business." The former officer went on to say that on Fridays certain police officers get lucrative "tips" for watching over those businesses.
The police that investigate the police say they are unaware of the officers being paid to do their duty by businesses.
"I can safely tell you if that kind of thing is happening, we are unaware of it," said Lloyd Haley, Kingston's Deputy Superintendent for Internal Affairs. If business owners come to them with such charges, "we certainly would investigate."
The Deputy Superintendent implored anyone who has been paying police to do the job they are already paid to do, to contact the police. While some officers want to excuse such practices as "moonlighting," that usually means work after hours, and these payments allegedly were made for work while officers were on duty.
For restaurants, payment for an increased police presence can be in food. "You don't give police a bill," is how one snack vendor put it.
In fairness, in countries around the world free food for police officers is a common practice. In the USA, some doughnut shop chains have a policy to give free coffee and pastries to cops so they will frequent their locations and deter crime by their mere presence.
But, cops demanding funds from robbery victims to find the perpetrators is, according to one Kingston policeman, "a particular problem in the 'republic' of Montego Bay." Another simply said, "They do things different up there."
In Montego Bay, Deputy Superintendent Roy Boyd, was asked if he thought police in that area ever asked those who reported a crime to pay to investigate it. "That's impossible," said Mr. Boyd, who is head of the Crime Force in St. James.
Not in dispute is the fact that business operators in various parts of the country believe that when it comes to crime investigations, Dons are more efficient than cops.
"My office got robbed, lost a valuable piece of equipment, expensive Sony radio, and few other things," said a Corporate Area businessman. "I called the police in the past and never got results so I called the local community leader."
The Don's men had everything back the same day. This is not an unusual story. Business operators increasingly seem to rely on Dons to swiftly solve robberies.
The use of Dons for security on construction projects is sometimes factored into the bids for the job. At costs at times as high as $50,000 a week on major projects, contractors feel they have to pass the bill along to be able to make ends meet.
That means, in road work, for example, to pass along the costs to Government agencies, which in turn means taxpayers are footing the security bill, whether licensed security guards or a Don's rogue justice.
The same practice occurs in the private sector, whether it is a pair of socks or a loaf of bread, a store or a factory's security costs from legitimate guards to protection rackets are rarely absorbed by businesses, but passed on to the customer.
Ultimately, this means the problem of crime and business is not limited to any one sector but to everyone.
