The police force was established to serve and protect the people of this country, but unfortunately, this has not been the perception of Jamaicans over the years. Many fear the police, sidelining them as corrupt and crude. The recent confession of one such cop in the pages of this newspaper confirmed the existence of these rogue policemen.
The results of the following opinion poll is confirmation of the
perception people have of the police and public officials.
JAMAICANS believe one in every two police is corrupt, despite efforts by Police Commis-sioner Lucius Thomas to weed out bad members from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).
The latest Bill Johnson opinion polls, conducted on January 5 and 6 this year, found that most people believe nearly 55 per cent of the members of the JCF are shady.
This unflattering view of the constabulary is held by a majority of persons islandwide. The disapproval of the police's conduct is highest in the Corporate Area, where respondents think as many as 60 per cent of the JCF is corrupt. This rises to 66 per cent in the St. Andrew South Police Division in particular. Indeed, respondents in every parish believe that more than half of the nation's law enforcers are corrupt.
The poll was conducted among 1,008 citizens in 84 communities from across the country. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent.
difficulty facing high command
Johnson's survey findings are indicative of the difficulty facing the police High Command and the National Security Ministry as they seek to engage public support in combating the nation's astronomical murder rate, as well as other major crimes. The High Command has placed much emphasis on community-based policing and has been relying increasingly on citizen-based intelligence to manage crime.
There has been some degree of success as evidenced by the 25 per cent decrease in the murder rate in 2006 compared to the previous year. However, public cynicism regarding the unethical conduct of members of the police force is high.
The recent confession of a bad cop published on the front page of The Sunday Gleaner has aggravated the public's mistrust of the force. In his confession, the cop gave detailed descriptions of his corrupt lifestyle as a policeman moving up the ranks in the JCF.
He described how he and other police personnel were involved with the drug trade, bribed motorists and killed innocent civilians.
Instructively, 35 per cent of persons who are motorists admitted to the polling team that they had done a favour for or paid a policeman to avoid being ticketed.
However, Jamaicans' perception of corruption is not only limited to cops. They also believe nearly half of all public officials are dishonest, according to the poll.
Global corruption watchdog, Transparency International, gave Jamaica a grade of 3.7 out of 10 on its Corruption Perception Index last year, a minuscule one percentage point improvement over the preceding year.
What percentage of the police force in Jamaica do you think is corrupt?
What percentage of gov't employees do you think is corrupt?
If you drive, have you ever given money to, or done a favour for the police to avoid getting a traffic ticket?
Location of persons who
believe the police are corrupt
Trelawny and St. Ann
St. Mary, Portland and St. Thomas
57%
Kingston and St. Andrew
60%
St. Andrew South
66%
St. Catherine and Clarendon
51%
Manchester and St. Elizabeth
53%
Westmoreland, Hanover and St. James
55%
Location of persons who believe
government employees are corrupt
Trelawny and St. Ann
51%
St. Mary, Portland and St. Thomas
45%
Kingston and St. Andrew
51%
St. Andrew South
51%
St. Catherine and Clarendon
46%
Manchester and St. Elizabeth
49%
Westmoreland, Hanover and St. James
52%
