Technology will root out police corruption, says Chang

The Government’s investment in ­modern technology in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) will soon begin to bear fruit by ­reducing the incidence of corruption among traffic cops and the increased ­apprehension of “high-value” criminals, Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang assured diplomats yesterday.

He was addressing members of the diplomat corps at a press briefing at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, for Diplomatic Week 2020, which runs from March 2-5.

Chang said that a Technology Branch, headed by an assistant commissioner of police, had been established in keeping with the effort of “­rebuilding and repolishing” the force.

He disclosed that 100 traffic cops will be provided with tablets this month as part of a pilot project intended to improve the efficiency of the ticketing system.

“Currently, we write a ticket by a police officer and it either goes into the system or it doesn’t go, or it disappears somewhere because of something happening. What we’re seeking to do is to ensure that we can build out connectivity between a small machine that they write the ticket on, to the police control centre, to the tax office, and to the Island Traffic Authority,” Chang said.

“Once the ticket is written, nobody can take it out of the system again … . Once you write the ticket in a tablet that we are planning to give every police officer, it will also give them a real-time connection to the police database that they can identify vehicles that may be involved in criminal activity.”

The likelihood of cutting-edge technology ­driving down crime will be significant, the national security minister said.

“Oftentimes the high-value criminal will not be caught with a gun in his hand … ,” the ­minister added. “He may be just driving through a ­community. So if you have the capacity of having stopped him to check on his identity, immediately you have a greater capacity of apprehending him.”