Garth Rattray

Sad to say tha 14 policemen have been killed this year, some citizens (even decent, law-abiding and highly educated ones) remain devoid of sympathy, trust and respect for the constabulary. Over the years, the behaviour of a few cops has caused this.

Police corruption, excesses, reckless abandon, unprofessional behaviour, extrajudicial killings and extortion alienate civilians, compromise the efficiency of the force, serve to entrench and even promulgate criminality. Some inner-city residents exist symbiotically with gangsters because they discern very little difference between them and some cops.

The lives of our policemen and women are constantly in danger from heavily armed criminals bent on anarchy. Jungle justice holds sway in many communities. Witnesses to atrocities are held hostage and cowered into submissive silence by cold-blooded murderers. However, when our police act with impunity under the banner of ridding society of those criminals, they transform themselves into the very beings that they despise and become the antithesis of the ideals of the Constabulary Force.

In another sphere of corrupt activities, some cops feel that the Government is simply using traffic fines and penalties to raise revenue and dissuade violations rather than to educate road users for the sake of our safety. Consequently, they exact their own system of taxation and use our (very imperfect) system to earn upwards of $40,000 each day in revenue for themselves.

Contrary to popular opinion, police aggression and corruption, though scattered throughout, are certainly not pervasive. Many Jamaicans expect the average cop to be gruff, trigger-happy and/or a uniformed extortionist. This grossly unfair generalisation has hurt the force immensely. The vast majority of cops are decent, hard-working, honest and patriotic; they (more than anyone else) lament the state of corruption that exists within the constabulary.

Corruption in the Force

Commissioner of Police Lucius Thomas has spoken out repeatedly and vociferously against corruption in the force, and there are established measures to combat not only corruption, but also ignorance and improve interpersonal communication between the police and the civilian population.

Our police are in fact, pretty well-trained. Recruits must go through an intense 40 weeks (one academic year) of basic training. They are tutored in everything from non-lethal self-defence, roles and primary duties of the police and the fundamentals of English to basic law, sociology, psychology, humanitarian law, human rights and even ethics (64 topics in all). Basic training continues after graduation from the Police Academy. Probationers (as they are called) must complete a year of on-the-job training (OJT). Between the Academy, OJT and more in-service training at the Academy, there is great effort to educate our young constables in the ways of proper policing (laws, rules, techniques and ethics).

Further in-service training is offered to sergeants and higher ranks, detectives, special squads, the protection division, trainers and drivers. The officer ranks and special units are intermittently trained by our Defence Force and specialists from the U.K., U.S.A. and Canada. And, if anyone, from the rank of constable to sergeant, is out of active or mainstream policing, he or she must undergo reorientation and development courses.

In-service training is carried out at the Academy and also decentralised to the various divisional headquarters. However, financial and logistical problems often thwart planned training schedules. For instance, one high-crime division had to wait two years for their assigned personnel to be requalified in firearm training.

In spite of all the scheduled and intense training, some cops continue to be recruited (seduced) by the dark side of the force.

Next week: Combating the dark side of the Force.