Editorial | Weeding corruption from the JCF

Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin will find strong support for his call for aggressive action to clear the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) of corrupt members. But the outcome of any such campaign is likely to be limited if its focus is only on rank-and-file cops involved in the petty, and the more visible, aspects of criminality.

For some tainted juniors, including some who will gain reputations as tough “frontline crime-fighters”, should they stay in the force long enough, will eventually be promoted to senior positions where their corrosive influence can cause greater damage.

We make no claim about what has happened in the past. However, the JCF has long been perceived as a corrupt institution, whose members demand, and receive graft and often behave with impunity and with disregard to citizens’ rights. It is also seen as an organisation that is resistant to change, which eventually either consumes or co-opts leadership that hankers for its transformation.

Some of these views were thrown into sharp relief recently with the revelation that at least eight of the members (30 per cent), including the leader, of a 27-member criminal gang operating in the central parish of Clarendon, were police officers. Seven of the suspects had been arrested and one was on the run. The so-called Renko gang was said to be involved in extortion and robberies. Its alleged leader, a police constable named Tafari Silvera, is also accused of conspiring to murder someone the gang believed was a police informant.

Rear Admiral Lewin, who – like the current head of the constabulary, Major General Antony Anderson – is a former chief of staff of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and also had a stint as the police commissioner, welcomed the action against the Renko gang. Cleaning the force was important to lifting public confidence in the institution, he argued.

“Discover them (crooked cops), clear them out and clean them out,” said Mr Lewin, who served a little more than a year as the police chief – a tenure cut short, many believe, by active resistance to his efforts to change the organisation and the fact that he didn’t personally enjoy strong political support.

KIND OF ACTION

That is precisely the kind of action that the Deputy Commissioner of Police for crime, Fitz Bailey, will insist that the constabulary is undertaking.

“The police have the capacity and the will to investigate our own,” he said in announcing the arrest of the alleged police members of the Renko gang. “ ... This investigation was not reported by citizens. It was the result of our own intelligence-led investigations.”

This newspaper, in common with the vast majority of Jamaicans, welcomes this commitment.

It is notable, however, that all the officers nabbed in this case were of the most junior rank – constables. Further, over the years, only a handful of senior, or gazetted officers, have been arrested and charged for corruption. Their prosecution usually fails.

It may indeed be the case that there is no corruption in the upper ranks of the JCF – that all of it is the crude, muscled stuff, which is confined to the rank and file. Nonetheless, some policy analysts insist that at least 20 per cent (over 2,000 members), from across all ranks, would be required to be separated from the force to send a clear signal of a move towards the constabulary’s sustainable renewal.

Government policymakers, however, have been reluctant to go this route, concerned about the potential political repercussions and of the possible circling of the wagons by members.

We believe that the posture on this matter, across administrations, has been far too timid. Indeed, there are several examples of countries and territories that have undertaken complete makeover of police forces that were either paramilitary in approach or corrupt – or both. Northern Ireland and Georgia stand out.

SIMPLE POLICY INITIATIVES

There are other, relatively simple, policy initiatives that can be pursued in aid of an anti-corruption drive in the constabulary. For instance, speaking at the same crime and security “summit” as Rear Admiral Lewin, researcher and writer on security and criminal justice issues, Professor Anthony Harriott, reprised the matter of robust independent oversight of the police force. “I am for a system that brings investigation, inspection and the ability to manipulate rewards and punishment in one place,” he said.

Governments have in the past committed to merging the constitutionally established Police Service Commission (PSC), which deals with the employment and disciplining of senior members of the force, with the Police Civilian Oversight Authority (PCOA), which reviews the JCF’s adherence to operational policy. The PCOA has little profile and is paid even less attention. Merging the PSC and the PCOA would provide the new institution with greater heft. The Government should act on this.

Professor Harriott seems to believe that INDECOM, the agency that investigates complaints of abuse or use of force issues against the security forces, should be part of the mix. That is an idea worth discussing.

At the bottom line, however, rooting corruption from the JCF, at all ranks, requires two things. The first is will – a government that is willing to expand political capital on the matter. Thereafter, the reform programme has to be pursued by leaders who won’t be deterred or co-opted by the squad.