EDITORIAL - Mr Ellington owes us more

We welcome the announcement by the leadership of the constabulary that it has been backing, and will continue to fully back, the probe by the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), to wherever it leads, into a rash of perhaps organised killings allegedly by police officers in the Clarendon division.

For, as the Police High Command noted in its statement on Tuesday, "only thorough and speedy investigations, followed by full public disclosure of findings, can repair such damage" done to the police by INDECOM's findings and public declarations thus far, including the arrest of four policemen.

Allegations that Jamaica's police kill people contrary to the law stretch back decades. Indeed, each year, large swathes of the families and friends of the victims of the upward of 250 police homicides claim that their deaths were extrajudicial. Occasionally, a police officer has been brought before the courts where he is likely to be found not guilty.

DIFFERENCE IN TONE AND TEXTURE

There is a difference, however, in the tone and texture of the current investigation by INDECOM, the agency that was established to provide greater arm's-length scrutiny of complaints of misbehaviour by members of the security force. The pattern of the police is to report their homicides as the result of gunfights after they have been shot at by alleged criminals.

In the current circumstance, INDECOM reports that the murders under investigation were reported as civilian-on-civilian violence, including a case in which a man was shot and injured then later finished off by a masked gunman while recuperating in hospital. That the nine cases were in the same division, or involved police therefrom, revived speculation of an organised death squad and/or of policemen as freelance murderers. If the former is true, it begs the question of how far up the chain of command, by district, region or division, the knowledge of the activities of this, or these, organised death squad(s) goes.

Over the years, the leadership of the constabulary, as they did on Tuesday and earlier this year when this newspaper reported on the claims by a former policeman that such squads have existed and continue to do so, denied any knowledge of their existence and insisted they wouldn't be tolerated. In so far as policemen may have unlawfully killed people, that would largely be individual cops who exceed the constabulary's use-of-force policy.

CONCERNED WITH THE WIDER FORCE

While we appreciate that INDECOM must be allowed to complete its investigations and arrive at fair conclusions based on the evidence, we do not believe that such explanations, and the statement by the High Command, go far enough. The public is not interested in the bill of health prescribed by INDECOM for the specific symptoms. We are concerned with the broader health of the constabulary.

In that regard, we believe that this matter should become the direct responsibility of Police Commissioner Owen Ellington and National Security Minister Peter Bunting.

They must explain the systems that are in place to review the performances of districts, divisions and regions, and the cases within them, to determine whether they operate by the rules or have gone rogue. If such inspection and analyses do not now happen, we should be told when they will and what other systems are being implemented to ensure the integrity of the force. Messrs Ellington and Bunting must put their positions on the line.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.