Cops In The Dark…

ROCK, Trelawny — Members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force Marine Division who are sta­tioned at Glistening Waters mari­na in Trelawny are com­plain­ing bit­ter­ly about the lack of elec­tric­i­ty at the police post, a sit­u­a­tion they say has exist­ed for almost two years now.

One of the dis­grun­tled cops, who spoke to the Jamaica Observer West on con­di­tion of anonymi­ty, claimed that vis­i­bil­i­ty at the facil­i­ty is zero after oper­a­tors of the mari­na where they are sta­tioned turn their lights off after clos­ing at nights. “Over two years now there is no elec­tric­i­ty. We can’t do any effec­tive polic­ing in the dark. During the course of the night after the oper­a­tions (at the mari­na) close off, di peo­ple them turn off dem light on the com­pound. And that leave the whole place in dark­ness,” the cop fumed. According to the police source, when­ev­er they are required to log reports at night, they do so with the assis­tance of the light from their cel­lu­lar phones.

The police also claimed that work­ing in the dark pos­es a secu­ri­ty threat.“ The offi­cers find it threat­en­ing because if any­body come up you can’t see them. Sometimes your own col­leagues use the bath­room and are return­ing but you can’t make them out in the dark,” the cop stat­ed. In addi­tion to not hav­ing light in the night time, the cops also have to endure heat despite there being an air con­di­tion­ing unit. The marine cop said the morale of the 16-mem­ber team is very low as a result. When the Observer West con­tact­ed act­ing per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in the min­istry Karen Clarke Davis on the issue yes­ter­day, she said she was will­ing to look into the sit­u­a­tion at the Trelawny police post, but only after the cops report the issue to their supe­ri­ors. “If you have unsat­is­fac­to­ry work­ing con­di­tions the onus is on you to bring it to your supe­ri­ors. There is a process, “ Clarke Davis argued. “I will not inter­vene if they have not tak­en all the steps to bring to the atten­tion of the author­i­ties their plight and con­di­tion. So I am will­ing to help, but you have got to show me what you have done,” she continued.

The Observer West was informed that at least one high-rank­ing mem­ber of the marine divi­sion, who recent­ly vis­it­ed the post, is ful­ly aware of the sit­u­a­tion, but our police source expressed hes­i­ta­tion to report the con­di­tions, because of what the source described as pos­si­ble vic­tim­i­sa­tion from their supe­ri­ors. Recently, Minister of National Security Robert Montague address­ing town­hall meet­ings he host­ed in west­ern Jamaica, bemoaned poor work­ing con­di­tions of some mem­bers of the force. During a vis­it to the bar­racks at one of the sta­tions he toured, the secu­ri­ty min­is­ter, who said he wouldn’t sleep there, ordered the per­ma­nent sec­re­tary to pur­chase mat­tress­es for the facility.
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