PRESIDENT OF the National Democratic Movement (NDM), Bruce Golding has criticised aspects of the government, the police force and the justice system which, he said, were frustrating the fight against crime.
During a television broadcast on Tuesday night, Mr. Golding called on the Government to remedy those conditions which make the job of the police force more difficult.
Making reference to recurrent budgetary provisions for the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Mr. Golding noted that the allocations have failed to keep pace with inflation over the last three years, especially on the capital side where some $65 million had been provided this year.
"This is a quarter of what it used to be (and) the police cannot be expected to combat crime on a shoe string budget," Mr. Golding said, calling on Minister of Finance, Dr. Omar Davies, to give a "guarantee that budgetary disbursements given to the police are made in full and on time" because there were also shortfalls in the police's monthly disbursement.
"You plan your activities expecting to get $450 million for the month (and) when you get the cheque you discover it is only $400 million," he said.
The NDM president also called attention to the ways in which the lack of proper allocation had hampered the police's crime fighting ability. There were approximately 100 police vehicles, he said, which were "laid up" at the motor vehicle workshop and many were parked at police stations islandwide. The rest of the vehicles were also experiencing problems because this year's allocation for motor vehicle operations was the same as last year's despite a 30 per cent increase in petrol prices. "This is bound to curtail police patrols and crime surveillance," he said.
Referring to reports that half of the 119 lines were out of commission, Mr. Golding took Cable and Wireless to task for not doing their job. He said at present there is only one operator at Cable and Wireless who is receiving and routing calls to different emergency agencies but at 119, there should not be less than four operators, he said. "Cable and Wireless must be told that we are not putting up with that (because) they are required under their license to provide this service." However Cable and Wireless said yesterday that all the numerous calls to the 119 service terminate at Jamaica Constabulary offices and are answered by police personnel.
It said also that 119 services are afforded the highest priority in C&W's fault monitoring and maintenance routines.
In his speech, Mr. Golding had also charged that too much time was spent by the police to review cases. He suggested that it would be better for the police and the courts to spend time dealing with real criminals rather than "spliff smokers."
"We feel the time has come to decriminalise the possession of small quantities of ganja. Let us remove this unnecessary work load from the police and the courts so that they can deal with the real menace to our security," he said.
The NDM president insisted that the police needed armoured vehicles to help them deal with "the kind of siege that they came under in Mountain View recently" and critical supplies such as the arms and bullet proof vests which are to be given to Jamaica by Britain and even explosive detection dogs that "could be extremely useful in detecting guns and ammunition not only in crime operations but at ports of entry.
He chided Government officials for not granting permission for the entry of these dogs while allowing the FBI tracker dog, Valorie to enter the island and the Prime Minister for not intervening and allaying the fears of both British and American authorities who have not released the equipment because of concerns about human rights abuses involving the security forces.
