- Norman Grindley/Staff Photographer
Commissioner of Police, Francis Forbes, left, addresses Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) detectives from across the island during the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) annual CIB Conference held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston, yesterday.
John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
POLICE COMMISSIONER, Francis Forbes, says the lack of confidence demonstrated by the public in the Police Force, is impacting negatively on criminal investigation.
"The most important challenge that we face today is this lack of confidence by members of the public," Commissioner Forbes told detectives attending the annual CIB Conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre yesterday.
"It is not something that came overnight, but it is something that is impacting in a very terrible way on the output of this organisation and particularly on the output of criminal investigation," he emphasised.
He said this is reflected in the rate at which crimes are cleared up by the police.
"When we look at the clear-up rate, even as I speak, it is not something that we can be proud of."
In light of this challenge, Commissioner Forbes urged the detectives to take on a new attitude and approach in order to regain the confidence of the public.
"This problem of confidence (lack of ) requires a strategy of confidence building (but) ... at the end of the day, it is going to be your own approach to the community out there... that is going to determine whether or not you build back this confidence," the Commissioner stated.
Evidence that this approach is effective, Commissioner Forbes said, is Central Kingston where the area has been under curfew for nearly two weeks now due largely to request from residents.
"I want to tell you that it is all because of confidence. The confidence that they have is that we are not going to smash down their doors and break up their furniture..."
Detectives were also urged to utilise intelligence and rely less on their weapons in solving crime.
"The most dangerous weapon you should have against the criminals is (intelligence)," Commissioner Forbes noted.
Under the new anti-crime measures now being pursued by the police, Commissioner Forbes pointed out, a lot of residents in inner-city communities are under "tight wrap".
"One of the realisations of this anti-crime measure is that many of the people whom we thought were free out there, they were only free to demonstrate against us..., but they were prisoners in their own communities."
Commissioner Forbes said the new anti-crime measures are geared towards building relationships with communities. He said the communities, especially those in the inner cities, have been longing for the presence of the police, but could not accept the way in which they used to operate.
