Mark Titus, Freelance Writer

Assistant Commissioner of Police Leslie Green. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Assistant Commissioner of Police Leslie Green says the deficiencies in the Jamaica Constabulary Force's (JCF) forensic capabilities and the lack of resources are contributing to the high rate of unsolved murders.

The British national, who is on secondment to the JCF, believes that the country is way behind in crime scene investigation and urgently needs to be on par with First World standards.

"We are working together with the JCF and petitioning the Ministry (of National Security) constantly for an increase in budget. The budget allocation for the JCF is not sufficient ... and hasn't been for years and years," ACP Green told The Gleaner.

Enormous input needed

"Successive governments, I think, have failed to give support in relation to the funding needed to fight crime. There needs to be an enormous input into fighting crime and providing the basic resources for our police officers."

ACP Green, who was addressing yesterday's weekly luncheon of the Rotary Club of Montego Bay, spoke on 'Solving/Reducing Crime Through Technology.'

The officer admitted that he has experienced some successes since his arrival in Jamaica earlier this year.

"Some of the successes experienced include working with the detectives in winning over the confidence of witnesses and prioritising the need to bring in new forensic tools to assist us to obtain evidence," he stated.

Added Green: "Getting used to the bureaucracy, and difficulties we have (getting) around the little resources is my biggest challenge to date. It is very difficult to work with literally nothing. There are stations here in Jamaica where the detectives don't have the basic tools to work with."

The senior cop also alluded to sweeping changes for forensic investigations, including extensive training for scene-of-crime detectives and the modernisation of the photography capabilities of the JCF to include digital technology.