By Earl Moxam , Senior Gleaner Writer
David Purdy
CORRUPTION IN the police force, including the senior ranks, has been identified by one foreign consultant with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) as a major factor undermining the effectiveness of its crime-fighting capabilities.
"At any level it is a serious problem, which must be addressed," said David Purdy, law enforcement development adviser to the JCF, in an interview with The Gleaner.
One way of sending a strong signal, he suggested, was to demonstrate that there is a high degree of risk associated with this behaviour.
INVESTIGATIONS
"When you find out, you do your investigations and you deal effectively with it and remove them. Remove their pension; take that away from them. But we also have to put them in jail; we have to prosecute them; we have to send a message, and we are building that," he said.
Creating the conditions for the new stringency being recommended, he said, includes the establishment of a Professional Standards Bureau "that answers directly to the Commissioner's office, going through no other rank or office".
In that Professional Standards Bureau, he said, would be a new internal affairs and anti-corruption unit, to replace the existing four separate units that handle internal affairs issues, such as police misconduct.
"There's no way four units can effectively deal with the issue when they don't talk with each other and do not share information," he said.
EXPERIENCED
Mr. Purdy, already in Jamaica for a year-and-a-half, came to his current position with 33 years of experience as a policeman and 28 years simultaneously in the military (having worked as a policeman in the states of Florida, Colorado, Nebraska, Washington and Michigan and as police chief in three cities).
"The approach that we're taking in the JCF is to go after a structure that rewards good conduct, identifies and deals effectively with bad conduct, and create a system that pays the officers enough so that it's not as tempting to be corrupt," he said.
But that, he acknowledged, was a major challenge "when they can earn an annual salary by providing one piece of information." Nevertheless, he said the High Command would have to persist with a mix of reward and punishment.
"You have to make it more acceptable to be clean than to be dirty," he argued.
The problem of corruption, he claimed, was not confined to the police force.
"We do have a very clearly identified problem in all facets of government here. That's why the extortion is so high and why it's so common. People have projects for which they budget extortion money! That's a clear indication that it's acceptable," he charged.
MATTER OF GREAT CONCERN
As for the high crime level besetting the country, the American law enforcement adviser contends that while it is a matter of great concern, it is "isolated to particular areas and issues."
"It is not islandwide; it's not epidemic, covering and victimising everybody. So it is something we have to keep in perspective. While the numbers have climbed significantly this year we do not have a terribly unsafe island, if you look at the big picture," he said.
Media coverage of the crime situation was giving a distorted picture, he argued.
"I can understand why people may think the entire country is under siege; if they constantly read the headlines it will appear that the entire country is under siege, but it's really the Kingston inner-city communities and Spanish Town that are currently under siege. But the picture does get distorted with the media coverage," he claimed. Regarding the recent outbreaks of gang-related violence in parts of Kingston and Spanish Town, Mr. Purdy is making a link between those activities and the recent increase in activities in the two major political parties. When asked to back up that assertion, he resorted to anecdotal information.
CORRELATION
"There seems to be a correlation, in talking to people, between political activities and gang activities, and right now there is restructuring taking place, both in the political parties and the gangs. Whether they are connected or not, there's restructuring going on and battles for turf. So it's left up to whoever wants to interpret it, whether there is a direct connection or an indirect connection. What we know is both events are happening and there's instability in both of them right now and that is one contributory factor in the rise in crime," he said.
