Daraine Luton, Sunday Gleaner reporter

Adults and children move to safety in the aftermath of a police shooting in west Kingston, which left three persons dead last Tuesday. The police say they were attacked by gunmen. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

BAD COPS in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) are like termites in board houses. If they remain the structure will be weakened and very soon will come crashing down.

"You cannot put new furniture in the house; put paint on it and don't expect it to rotten down. If you don't get rid of the chi-chi (termite) the house will fall," reasons Yvonne McCalla-Sobers, chairperson of human rights group Families Against State Terrorism (FAST).

The indiscretions of bad police personnel have been the main reason behind members of the public reacting to the police with the proverbial grain of salt. In fact, a Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson poll in January found that nearly 55 percent of Jamaicans believe the police are corrupt.

Citizen-focused service

This is despite numerous efforts to transform the force to provide a citizen-focused service, while reducing crime and disorder through proactive intelligence-led policing.

Under the JCF's latest corporate strategy, which runs from 2005 to 2008, police reformers have been concentrating on three areas of priorities. These include providing a citizen-focused service and tackling key operational issues, reducing deaths and accidents on roads, and making safer communities through community policing.

Traffic management techniques have yielded a decline in the number of fatal motor vehicle accidents on the nation's streets. While the year 2002 had 408 road deaths, subsequent years have seen a steady decline, with data showing 326 fatalities for 2005.

Police last year also managed to cut murders by 25 per cent and to dent the cocaine trade. They attribute this especially to the intelligence-driven activities of the two-year-old Operation Kingfish.

With the establishment of the Professional Standards Branch (PSB), which was set up to investigate charges of misconduct against the police, and the setting up of Major Investigation Teams - a unit skilled in forensic and crime-scene management and processing - the police have moved from being a backward organisation.

Despite these strides, the police have been crippled by recurring and mounting charges of corruption and other forms of unprofessional conduct.

Just recently, medical doctor Jephthah Ford pledged to lead a crusade against bad cops after he was beaten up by three policemen, one of whom, allegedly, had 27 complaints made against him.

Dr. Ford was beaten by the police in Portmore, St. Catherine, after he attempted to intervene in a dispute between his sister and the policemen. He was allegedly beaten all over the body and had to behospitalised for days.

Daily fear

But Opposition leader Bruce Golding says the police transgressions against Dr. Ford is the daily fear of many Jamaicans. Just last Tuesday, after an alleged gun battle between thugs and the police in Denham Town, west Kingston, residents not only complained about police brutality in general but identified one policemen in particular whom they say has treated them with scant regards.

Mr. Golding says that he has had to lodge a complaint with members of the police high command about the policeman, whom the residents call 'Brownman'. His style, residents say, has been confrontational and inhumane.