Purdy
IN THE Sunday Gleaner last week, we carried a story in which David W. Purdy, law enforcement development advi-sor to the Jamaica Constabulary Force, raised concerns about what he alleged to be lax security at border points allowing guns and other contraband to get into the country. Today, we reprint excerpts from that interview Mr. Purdy gave to Earl Moxam.
EM: Sometimes it appears that there are more guns than mangoes in Jamaica. Where are they coming from and how do we deal with that?
DP: We have to tighten up the borders. We have to start using the tools we currently have. The hurricane took away our mangoes but not our guns! If we could get a metal-eating iguana to come in we would be in great shape! But the guns are coming in from many different sources.
Many of them are staying here they are home-made, they are being refashioned but a lot them are coming in from abroad. They are coming in through drug trafficking routes; they're coming in through shipments; they are coming in through air cargo and it's a matter of the country tightening its borders.
In years past we stopped planes coming in but we have a coastline that is wide open. We have to deal with that effectively. We have to get the marine police out, we have to have a vetted unit that is working the borders and securing it.
We have to have customs using the X-ray equipment, the Ionscan equipment; all this sophisticated equipment that is available but for some reason keeps ceasing to work, because they pull the plug, you have certain employees that are not being monitored, supervised, held accountable. And we're constantly finding equipment that has been turned off, disabled, and not used. So we have equipment there; we have to start using it. We have laws there that allow us to search and secure and they're not using them effectively.
EM: So you are saying that the corruption and the collusion extend to the entry points where people are deliberately doing this to thwart the efforts?
DP: Information we have would indicate that, yes. That is clearly suggested. Having hard evidence is difficult, but equipment that is constantly failing is suspect. And when you keep repairing it and the next day it is turned off again or it's not being used that is suspect and that's a matter of supervision and holding employees accountable to use the equipment there. And so the obvious question is why is it not being used?
You have to speculate, but it's not being used as effectively as it can. We have guns coming in through the coastline and there's nobody out there looking, or very few. These are very porous borders and they have to get serious about that.
The tracking of guns is not adequate; the firearms licensing in this country is flawed as has been clearly documented. That has to be fixed! Why do you need so many licenced firearms holders?
Why do licenced firearm holders need so many guns? What has the system been to acquire licences? Is it because they meet the requirements of the law, or they meet the payment schedule? That has to be addressed. And it hasn't been taken seriously until very recently, and that's got to go.
EM: Some say your own country is culpable as well in that not enough is being done on that side to stem the flow of guns that come from the United States into Jamaica. We are required to be very stringent in terms of our searches, as far the drugs leaving Jamaica are concerned. Is there a case for the United States to answer here?
DP: I'm sure there is culpability on the part of every country that does business with Jamaica. The borders have to be tightened coming and going. There's generally greater emphasis on drugs going out of the country and coming in, and guns that are coming in, but that doesn't mean we don't search them going out if we have the means and capabilities. It's a very expensive process; it requires inconvenience; it requires delayed shipments and it depends on what level of interference is acceptable to the public. The effort has to be stepped up, and I think it is being stepped up; I know the U.S. Homeland Security is everyday enhancing their abilities to stop and to identify the trafficking. We (Jamaica) are getting shipments coming in that aren't all from the U.S. or the U.K.
They all have to be checked. You know they can come out of any port anywhere, but they come in to a very narrow band here, and that's where they are getting through. So if you check and if you're trying to check at both ends you increase the probability of finding it.
If one end isn't and the other end is being lax things are going to come through, just flow through. That's why we had containers coming through with full cars. They used to send them through in pieces and then assemble them, and then they found out why go through the trouble of taking them apart when we can put the whole car in the container and ship it in.
That was demonstrated when the new X-ray equipment was turned on one of the first containers we checked had a car in it! Oh my! Let's use what we have and what's been provided and be effective with it. We have to have the will and the commitment to do it.
Statement from U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Cliff Tighe on Jamaica's port security
SINCE THE launch of 'Operation Kingfish', we are heartened that law enforcement issues are receiving such close and sustained attention in the media.
Operation Kingfish has united law enforcement agencies nation-wide and internationally, garnered the support of people across Jamaica, and has had a powerful first week of fighting crime and getting results.
On Sunday and Monday The Gleaner ran a series of articles with Mr. David Purdy based on an hour-long interview about a number of issues related to his role as law enforcement advisor to the Jamaica Constabulary Force, his work in Jamaica, and his experience in the United States.
SPEAKING GENERALLY
Mr. Purdy was speaking generally about a number of issues, and was not focusing specifically on seaports. In the interest of clarity, the U.S. Embassy would like to commend the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) for the progress it has made in the past two years.
In December 2002, personnel from United States Coast Guard, Maritime Administration, and U.S. Customs and Homeland Security began regular meetings with PAJ officials to share experience and to address the challenges involved in implementing the International Ship and Port Security code (ISPS).
Overall progress noted at each juncture indicated that code compliance in Jamaica is among the best in the region.
CODIFIED POLICY
The Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) has codified policy on ISPS requirements to guide the operations of both seaports and visiting vessels.
Additionally, the Port Security Act now in draft is designed to further bolster the security of operations at the seaports. PAJ has instituted upgrades in CCTV systems, lighting, access controls and monitoring systems that bring it in line with modern seaports.
Leveraging the experience of U.S. Customs and law enforcement, the seaports have assembled a core of learned operators who even now are confronting the challenges involved in effectively screening inbound and outbound seaport cargo.
BEST PREPARED PORTS
Speaking during the annual international airline and shipping police (IAASP) meeting in Montego Bay held June 20-25 of this year, Steven Flynn, serving with the U.S. Council on foreign relations as the foremost expert on homeland security and border control and a director of the council's Hart-Rudman task force on homeland security, remarked that Jamaican stood out as one of the best prepared ports in terms of ISPS code compliance.
No security system designed by man can be 100 per cent effective. However, international standards build flexibility into the system to anticipate where possible and react where necessary to these circumstances. The PAJ has instituted port facility security plans (PFSP) in all its ISPS code certified ports.
As a signatory to the SOLAS conventions, an active member of the International Maritime Organisation and a responsible member of the international maritime community, Jamaica will undoubtedly continue to respond to her international obligations in the area of seaport security.
