THE EDITOR, Sir:
COMMISSIONER OF Police Lucius Thomas has recently called for police persons to be equipped with more sophisticated weaponry.
However, given that Mr. Thomas has identified police corruption as a critical issue, he needs first to indicate the measures he is implementing to hold the police accountable for the use of their existing firepower.
Prosecutors face insuperable problems securing justice when police kill civilians. The result is a single conviction out of about 1,000 fatal police shootings.
Prosecutions are ill-served when investigators collect police weapons in bulk from the station armoury. Over 80 weapons were collected in the Braeton case when only six policemen were shown to have fired at the deceased.
Also in the Braeton case, police persons were able to use and clean their weapons for up to six weeks before submitting them for ballistics testing. By that time, any evidence of value was destroyed.
EXONERATION BY DEFAULT
Poor record keeping has sometimes resulted in exoneration of police officers by default. In the Janice Allen case, for example, a police constable was found not guilty after the firearms registry was consumed in a fire.
In the Braeton Seven case, the prosecution was unable to link the accused policemen to bullets found in the bodies of the deceased, because firearms records were either deficient or non-existent.
In the Kraal case, policemen's weapons were last entered in firearms registries as long ago as 1999.
Further, police persons have been released of murder charges because they claimed their weapons had become defective.
For example, police who killed 11-year-old Orane Williams and 14-year-old Amanie Wedderburn said their weapons lacked a safety catch and so fired accidentally.
In cases where police persons plead self-defence, the suspicion of recycled and planted guns remains.
Former Commissioner of Police Francis Forbes noted at least three 2002 incidents in which firearms in the possession of the police had turned up as exhibits said to be recovered from suspects.
Forbes then said he had ordered an audit of all guns being held as exhibits at police stations, but nothing was heard about the outcome of that exercise.
ESTABLISH RULES
If police use of firearms is to appear principled, Commissioner Thomas needs to demand that:
Police persons adhere to professional standards with respect to the discharge of their firearms;
Permanent and indestructible records show weapons and ammunition -officially assigned or the personal property of police persons - that are taken on operations;
Police persons involved in fatal shootings are bound to account for firearms and ammunition assigned to them, and to personally hand over their firearms for ballistics testing;
A permanent registry is created to list all weapons seized by the police as exhibits, and to show when, where, and how these weapons are disposed of;
Weapons are routinely tested, so police persons cannot blame killings on defective firearms.
Most of all, Commissioner Thomas must enforce strict disciplinary measures for any breaches of firearm regulations.
Members of the public may not need sophisticated weaponry as much as they need systems to protect them from the firearms bought from the public purse.
I am, etc.,
YVONNE MCCALLA SOBERS
sobersy@yahoo.com
Kingston
