Editorial | Still much work to clean JCF

It is a notable and welcome development that the police arrested nearly a dozen of their own for allegedly being the core of a criminal gang, and for conspiring to commit murder and other crimes. But it would be wrong to equate these arrests with the kind of transformative actions required to root corruption out of the constabulary and create a police force that Jamaicans really trust.

The latter outcomes demand clear and specific policy initiatives imposed from the top and geared to disrupt settled norms. This happens when there is a clear recognition that there is an institutional problem to be fixed, which is not the sense most people get from the leadership of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

The arrests that were announced on the weekend by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Fitz Bailey flowed from the normal investigation of crimes, which led to the policemen becoming suspects. In that sense, it is easy to cast this group as just a bunch of rogues who sullied the name of the JCF. And there is the positive takeaway, as Mr Bailey pointed out, of the JCF being willing to investigate, and arrest, its own.

Our observations are not to downplay the value of what has happened and its potential to deter other cops who might contemplate using their jobs as a cover for bad behaviour. The implication of what Mr Bailey reported is that, of the 27 members of the Ranko Gang that operated in the central parish of Clarendon, 30 per cent (eight), including the leader, were policemen. Seven of those officers, including the leader, are detained. One is on the run, suspected of having escaped the island. Apparently, the targeting of the gang began with an investigation of robberies and murders, and involved a conspiracy to murder a person who was suspected of being a police informant.

“The police have the capacity and the will to investigate our own,” said DCP Bailey. “... This investigation was not reported by citizens. It was the result of our own intelligence-led investigations.” Which is good, and celebrated.

DEEPLY SYSTEMIC ISSUES

What the deputy commissioner’s remarks do not address, however, is the perceived deeply systemic issues that trouble the constabulary, without acknowledgement by its bosses. Or not publicly.

Jamaica’s police force has an old and enduring reputation for corruption and for behaving with impunity. And the force’s corruption, it is widely held, is not confined to its lower ranks.

Moreover, the JCF has largely been impervious to change. Attempts at implementing systems of accountability are often met with a circling of the wagons to shield the ‘squaddie’ from perceived interlopers. The system has also been good at co-opting and assimilating those who start out promoting change.

If there is to be a genuine transformation of the JCF, its current leader, Major General Antony Anderson, who has been in the job for four years, has to acknowledge, and defeat, these challenges. His public pronouncements with regard to changing the force have mostly been about the introduction of new technologies to enhance operational efficiencies. There is little mention of upending a deeply ingrained, toxic institutional culture that regenerates itself.

Put another way, Major General Anderson, to win the public’s trust, has to have a transparent and radical agenda that is seen to be disruptive of the old, corrosive norms. In this regard, it is untenable that, between 2018 and 2021, the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), the agency that investigates complaints against the security forces, filed with the JCF 80 reports – with recommendations for disciplinary hearings against 108 officers – without a single one of these proceedings taking place. But worse, INDECOM was not informed about the police’s decision on any of these matters, as is required by law. This action coincided with Major General Anderson’s watch.

SIMILAR COMPLAINTS

Last November, Otarah Byfield, the head of the Police Civilian Oversight Authority, a body that reviews the constabulary’s adherence to policy and standards, had similar complaints about the JCF’s approach to its work. She pointed, in a speech, to the organisation’s failure of “strict adherence to basic policing processes and procedures that require very little money and resources”.

She said: “If you do not sign to receiving a weapon when beginning your duties, how do you justify discharging that weapon in public, where the circumstances so require? The firearm register is your book of evidence. Does that take a lot of resources? If you don’t document a complaint or a statement from a citizen, how can you properly investigate something you have no record of and solve a crime? If you do not treat citizens with respect, how can you reasonably expect them to give you information to solve a crime?”

The shortcomings preceded Major General Anderson. They are not easy to fix. But a failure to fix them strengthens those in the constabulary who thrive in corruption and disorder. Things may change around the margins, but deep, sustainable transformation won’t take place.