Cops Harassed — Commish Warns Sleazy Senior Officers About Sexual Advances

Some senior offi­cers in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) have been sex­u­al­ly harass­ing their sub­or­di­nates, lead­ing the Commissioner of Police to issue a warn­ing in the Force Orders that crim­i­nal charges and dis­missal could result if they are found guilty of the offence.

“Numerous com­plaints have been received from some of our mem­bers of sex­u­al harass­ment by senior offi­cers. These reports indi­cate that sex­u­al harass­ment occurs in the Jamaica Constabulary Force in the form of unwant­ed phys­i­cal con­tact such as actu­al touch­ing, fondling, pinch­ing, cor­ner­ing or trap­ping by lean­ing over a work­er,” Dr Carl Williams, wrote in the Force Orders pub­lished last Thursday. The com­mis­sion­er said that harass­ment with­in the Force also takes the form of sex­u­al teas­ing or the telling of sex­u­al­ly explic­it jokes, sex­u­al­ly sug­ges­tive looks or ges­tures, repeat­ed requests for dates or meet­ings out­side work.

Williams’ warn­ing to cops fol­lows the tabling of the sex­u­al harass­ment bill in the House of Representatives in par­lia­ment last December by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. The bill seeks to out­law sex­u­al intim­i­da­tion, coer­cion and pes­ter­ing in the work­place, insti­tu­tions and in land­lord-ten­ant rela­tion­ships. For a first offence, Williams said the accused cop will be giv­en an oppor­tu­ni­ty to put for­ward his or her ver­sion of the alle­ga­tion. He said that if there is evi­dence to sub­stan­ti­ate the alle­ga­tion, then such an offend­er will be required to seek pro­fes­sion­al coun­selling. “If there is recur­rence, the mat­ter will be thor­ough­ly inves­ti­gat­ed and the file sent to the Police Services Commission and/​or the Director of Public Prosecution with a view of pre­fer­ring dis­ci­pli­nary and or crim­i­nal charges,” the com­mis­sion­er said. Williams said that he is cog­nisant that instances of sex­u­al harass­ment are like­ly to take place in pri­va­cy and with­out wit­ness­es. He said, how­ev­er, that it is impor­tant to pre­serve any cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence which may cor­rob­o­rate the complaint.

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