By Andrew Green, Staff Reporter
Gibson
DESPITE ITS massive crime problem, Jamaica is far from utilising the potential of its 2000 private investigators, said Ralston Gibson, managing director of TISCO Limited, an investigation firm.
Criminal activities are facilitated by the difficulties the police and private investigators have in getting and sharing knowledge. And many private and public enterprises fail to take simple preventive measures to stop white-collar crime, Mr. Gibson said.
"I have a social relationship with the police, but we don't have a working relationship," he said. That benefits neither the police nor the private investigator (PI).
"Jamaica does not have enough personnel in the Police Force to deal with the problem that exists," he said. "The time has come when the private investigator should be recognised and be allowed to work along with the police."
His experience in New York and California is that the two are integrated since their activities often coincide.
"You could find the police and a private investigator working on the same case. The investigative officer in the case of the New York Police Department would exchange notes with the private investigator." The reality is one of active collaboration. "Forget about what you see on television," he said.
In New York, the PI is registered, has a licence and functions under certain guidelines set by the state. In Jamaica only the police can execute an arrest, but this is not the case in the United States. Private investigators can get an arrest warrant to serve just as a policemen would, having received training in arrest procedures and the use of handcuffs.
That power of arrest is similar to the authority possessed by a special district constable, he said.
"I am an affiliate of the Sacramento Sheriff's Department and they have a databank that I can tap into at any time," he said. Here in Jamaica, he said, "they don't mind my giving them information but they will not share any information with me."
The main problem as an investigator, it is the ability to access information, he said.
"I can stay here and call the telephone company in Florida or New York and get someone's address," he said. "You cant do that here."
Things have improved, but Jamaica is still an information poor environment.
"I have seen policemen having difficulty getting information out of the Inland Revenue Department," he said. "It is ludicrous."
Not only is information access restricted, but the procedures for its acquisition are painstakingly slow. Based on the technology available, he said it should take no more than ten minutes to get a birth or death certificate, rather than the major personal commitment that is now involved.
These issues are critical for his company because investigations and collections are its main lines of business. This usually involves locating people.
The company also does some work for law firms but he said the level of this work was much less than would be the case with a US law firm. He said, "in New York and California, most lawyers have at least one investigator working closely with them."
One legal source said the problem for the law firm was one of affordability, as not many clients could pay for this added facility.
Because of the low profile of private investigators, the private security industry is seen as primarily relating to industrial security operations, providing armed and unarmed guards, canine guard and courier services Many companies are faced with security problems for which they have difficulty finding answers given their knowledge of the resources at hand, he said. Developments in electronic security have a much bigger role to play in Jamaica.
There does not appear to be a general appreciation of the real costs of inaction, he said. One invitation to fraud occurs where companies use their accounting clerks who prepare cheques to do their bank reconciliation.
Stolen cheques can also represent a major threat as legitimate signatures can also be "lifted" from existing cheques and placed on specially printed ones, he said. Even sealed bank deposit sacks can be slit, money stolen and the bags resealed with glue.
"Much of the white collar crime in Jamaica is not reported because people are just asked to resign," he said. This crime problem is an issue both in the public and private sector.
"We need to clear up these things," he said. "They are not helping the country."
