LIKE THE rebound of the West Indies cricket team, the fight against organised crime is beginning to pay real dividends.

The number of murders so far this year is significantly less than last year.

The amount of cocaine passing through Jamaica has reportedly decreased significantly.

Many front-line crime bosses are no longer in circulation, to put it delicately, and 'Zekes' will not be around for at least 30 years.

What this encouraging report is saying is that the police methods now being used, with the guidance of senior Scotland Yard officers or 'yardies', are paying off. These methods are assisting Commissioner of Police Lucius Thomas to prove himself to be the best commissioner since crime became a major issue three decades or more ago.

There is a new sense of professionalism emerging in the officer ranks of the police force aided by the culture of correctness introduced by Scotland Yard. Given time and persistence, the possibility could exist for rebuilding and reshaping the force into a truly professional body, that is, unless this image is once again disgraced.

RENETO ADAMS' FUTURE

Against this background of success, with promise of more to come, it is important that the decision on the future of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams be decided in a manner that will safeguard the force from any further Rambo-style policing by him. Not only the police force, but the people need to be protected from the Adams-type policing because it has not worked in the past in reducing the level of murders, nor extortion, and never will. The record of past years testifies to this.

If Adams is to remain in the police force, he should be safely secured behind a desk, not let loose on society. If not behind a desk, let him train the police dogs who share his temperament.

Too much bitterness and division, blood and death, has been the product of state terrorism. As one of the bitterest critics of brutality by the security forces, I am happy to see the dawn of a new day when the fight against crime can be a co-operative venture with the people. To encourage this, people and police must be on the same side.

This has not been the historic record. It has become almost a daily routine for the media to carry stories of police atrocities. This can end if the new image of correctness and professionalism is polished further so that policemen and women in the ranks become impressed and enthused by the new acceptance they find as protectors, not persecutors.

ENFORCEMENT

Laws can be written, but may not be enforced. Enforcement is best achieved when the people fight side by side with members of the security forces to enforce rather than defeat the law.

The day has to come soon when the police force will embrace high technology and make it work. I am reliably informed that when the changeover took place to convert the database on computers as of midnight December 31, 1999, to 2000, or Y2K, as it came to be known, the police computer is the only one that crashed. Specialists will need to be specially trained to absorb high-tech skills for crime detecting. The use of science will pay great dividends.

The merger of the Police Special Branch and Military Intelligence Unit of the JDF to establish a national intelligence agency was one of the many important proposals put forward in the JLP 2002 Manifesto. There has been official talk of adopting this proposal. I am uncertain as to whether there has been any action yet.

I hope that more success on all these fronts would make it unnecessary to introduce the more objectionable features of some of the pending crime- fighting legislation which have the capability of abusing human rights. Violating the rights of the people to fight crime is not a solution and legislation passed in panic often fails in the longer run after great damage has been done, much to the eventual regret of those who support such legislation.

SEQUENCE OF BREAKTHROUGHS

Probably it has come as a surprise to many that a sequence of breakthroughs has been happening in the fight against crime on several fronts without any major shake-up or other dramatic reforms. The reason is not puzzling to me. My own leadership style has always relied on setting the example at the top in the sure knowledge that this is transmitted down the line, automatically setting the tone and standards to be followed. If it is felt that "the boss is not going to like that", it won't happen. If the boss does not care, it will. If the boss is corrupt, the system will be corrupt.

It is obvious that what used to be tolerated from the top, for whatever reason, is no longer acceptable, or at least, that is the perception. Hence, it is becoming easier to straighten out the crooked conduct below. There is still much to be done before any proclamation of success. The crime problem is still there, although it is receding over the horizon.

DAUNTING LEADERSHIP TOOL

I have only met Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields, the first of the three Scotland Yard men now incorporated into the police force establishment, once. It was at a function at the Bob Marley Museum. I had the opportunity to say a few words to him on that occasion. In our brief conversation, I used the opportunity to offer my view that his value and that of his men from the Yard was not only in their methods of operation, but also in their presence as an "ever-present pair of virtuous eyes and ears which were a forbidding network of observance and detection." That veil of watchfulness is a daunting leadership tool which pays huge dividends.

I note that the Scotland Yard team and the British High Commissioner are apprehensive of disrupting the present operational regime. I hope they maintain that stance. It is in Jamaica's interest that the clean-up process continues and that the Commissioner of Police and the minister be given the valued support of men who can help them clean up the rotten smell of corruption in the force and transform it into a prestigious unit of protectors of the people and detectors of crime.

If the present West Indies Cricket team can make a great leap forward, so too can the present police force.

Edward Seaga is a former Prime Minister. He is now a Distinguished Fellow at the University of the West Indies. Email: odf@uwimona.edu.jm.