Work advancing to outfit police vehicles with trackers, says McIntosh

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Dianne McIntosh, says plans are well advanced to acquire tracking devices that are to be installed on police vehicles.

McIntosh's response came against the background of questions posed by members of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) who wanted to know how police vehicles were monitored to ensure that they were being used to carry out police work.

Former minister of national security, Peter Bunting, told the committee that attempts have been made in the past to get the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to implement a system where police vehicles are monitored electronically.

"Over many years, the ministry has tried to get the JCF to put in the tracking devices and I can't say the JCF has embraced it with enthusiasm."

Bunting told the committee that years ago a company donated vehicles to the police force and the personnel did not know that tracking devices were installed on the units "and there were days when the vehicles left the station and never reached the patrol route at all, completed the shift and went back to the station and technology showed that the vehicle never arrived at the designated patrol routes."

McIntosh told the committee that the ministry was in the final stages of procurement as it moves towards accessing tracking devices for police vehicles.

At present, the JCF relies on "tighter management systems" to track use of the vehicles, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Richard Stewart, told the committee this morning.

The PAC was reviewing a performance audit from the Auditor General's Department on how the JCF managed its procurement activities.

The audit showed that a significant number of the multi-million-dollar expenditures undertaken by the JCF did not meet "important principles of fairness, competition and transparency".

The expenditures included bills for food, fuel and facility repairs.

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