EDITORIAL -Far way to go on police killings

The near-halving of killings by Jamaican police of civilians during the first quarter of this year is a positive development, which this newspaper hopes is the start of a long-term trend. But the leadership of the constabulary and their boss, Peter Bunting, the national security minister, should not be surprised if we, and many other Jamaicans, are not ready to join in their whooping and throwing of hats.

It is not that we are cynical. Rather, experience has taught us to be cautious. For, we have been here before: a reduction in police homicides for a year, or two, and then an explosion the next.

Moreover, this development is deserving of some perspective.

First, the 47.3 per cent reduction in shooting deaths by members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) between January and March doesnt translate, by our reckoning, to a small number of killings. There were 40 of these homicides, compared to 76 in the first three months of 2013. At this rate, a police killing every two and a quarter days would, if it holds, mean around 150 homicides by the constabulary for 2014, against 258 in 2013.

By contrast, in the United States, with its population of more than 317 million and more than 683,000 law-enforcement officers, only 21 people were killed by police in this years first quarter and 309 for all of 2013. In the 15 years up to 2010, British police shot dead 33 civilians.

Of course, with their murder rates in single digit, neither of these countries has Jamaicas crime problem, including a homicide rate of more than 40 per 100,000 population.But it is conventional wisdom, if not legally proved, that Jamaicas police rely too heavily, often their first call, on the gun in law enforcement. In the last five years alone, for instance, they have killed 1,167 citizens, for an annual average of 233 a year. For the past quarter-century, the figure jumps to more than 4,300.

Over the years, there has been much outcry against the perceived use of violence as a tool of law enforcement, leading sometimes to a decline in police killings, as was the case in the 1990s, when the 125 or so civilians who died annually by police guns was moderate by Jamaican standards. But such downward trends dont usually last.

Mr Bunting and the Police High Command are optimistic about the latest trends. They attribute the current decline to better training of police officers, more vigorous efforts to have them use non-lethal methods of engaging criminals, frequent reminders of the constabularys use-of-force policy, and vastly improved operational planning and execution, which not only assures officer safety, but that of armed suspects.

We commend the authorities, for these efforts, and wish for their continuation, though we lament that their implementation was so long in coming.

But there is something else in the mix: the advent of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), the agency that polices the behaviour of the constabulary and has arrested and charged some officers for murder.

INDECOM, we feel, is beginning to change the sense of impunity in the constabulary, causing officers to believe they will be held to account for misbehaviour. That, if it holds, can only build trust in the constabulary, making it a better, crime-preventing and crime-detecting organisation that polices with the consent of citizens.