Some Jamaican Business Leaders want the Police and (indecom)to coöperate in protecting the country from criminals. Generally the Country’s Business leaders do not get involved except when they think their bottom line is in danger.
Recently some business leaders spoke out against what they believed was a Jockeying between Investigators of the Police Department and those from (indecom) to establish who has superseding authority at scenes of crime.
The answer is simple (indecom) is not the police department tasked with criminal investigations and as such it has no authority to take over a crime scene. Even if the Police killed someone during the commission of a crime the Police still have the authority to continue the investigations as they normally would.
The oversight Agency’s role is to look for impropriety if there are allegations of impropriety. That however does not give that body superseding authority over police, worse case scenario is that they share the scene.
The Private sector had all the time in the world to lobby at the time the (indecom) Act was being debated . The body chose to remain silent, though the effectiveness of the Police in dealing with crime on the island directly affects their bottom line.
It is reasonable to construe that their mealy-mouthed appeal for the police and (indecom) to work together is related to dwindling bottom lines as criminals overrun the country.
Ever the cynic, I do not believe the private sector is particularly concerned about who has superseding authority at scenes of crime.
The (indecom) Act was a bad law not because the Police do not need oversight. Lord knows some of the Island’s cops need much more than oversight in my estimation. So that’s not the issue. It’s a bad law because it was not researched, or debatable properly so that the law could snag dirty cops while exposing false allegations of police misconduct by those with an axe to grind.
We have said repeatedly in this publication that the law is bad because it does not fulfil the mandate which is required. It empowers a narcissist to abuse the powers of the Act, and ultimately send crime statistics through the roof .
There should be no question about who has superseding authority at crime scenes.
If an (indecom) investigator breaches a crime scene tape he/she should promptly be arrested and charged for breaching and potentially contaminating that crime scene.
In a real democracy of course where Bills are properly thought-out and debated before they are passed into Laws this could not stand. A bad law is worse than no law at all and that is what the (indecom) Act is, a bad law.
(Indecom) Investigators should not be at a shooting scene unless there are allegations of police impropriety.
This is a piece of legislation which was passed by a bunch of morons which will have debilitating consequences for the foreseeable future until the morons decide to repeal , rethink, and reauthorize it.
The JCF says it has adopted a policy of advising INDECOM of every shooting resulting in death or injury to any person which involves members of the force, whether or not misconduct is established. However, the force says that the practice has placed its investigators at a disadvantage to properly process/investigate crime scenes, “as INDECOM investigators are undertaking every such scene without establishing that there is misconduct on the part of the security forces”.
The JCF said that the Act is not clear as to whom or at what point it is determined that there is an incident, and that the issue is further complicated by section 10 of the Act, which provides for INDECOM to receive and investigate complaints from persons who allege that the conduct of a member of the security forces resulted in acts including death, injury, sexual assault, damage to property, “or anything which, in the opinion of the commissioner [of INDECOM] is an abuse of the rights of a citizen”. The JCF also complained that the INDECOM Act empowers the commissioner to give directives to the commissioner of police, who is obliged to implement these recommendations for the preservation of an incident scene and other matters. It said that the fact is that in many circumstances, the directives of INDECOM is relative to operational directives to the police commissioner. “Any such instruction of INDECOM conflicts with the power of the commissioner of police under section 3 (2) of the Constabulary Force Act, which states that the commissioner (of police) has sole operational command and superintendence of the force,” the JCF submitted. The JCF also suggested that the INDECOM Act must be amended to make it clear that it does not conflict the provisions of the Constabulary Force Act.
In its submission, the JDF said that the Act provides INDECOM with powers, such as that of a Supreme Court judge, that are beyond those required for investigations and has been interpreted to bypass some of the established checks and balances to assure fairness. “The Act deviates from international and local precedent and causes conflict with the Defence Act, thereby having a severe negative impact on the disciplinary and administrative procedures of the JDF,” the JDF submitted.
Yesterday September 23rd, Commissioner of the Independent Commission of Investigations (indecom) Terrence Williams is reporting that the number of police shootings which end in death is falling. He disclosed that up to three years ago, fatal shootings by the police averaged 250 per year, with the number falling significantly to 129 in 2014. For the first half of this year, the number stood at 50. Williams explained that there has been some improvement in the coöperation between the investigative body and the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), which has resulted in less use of excessive and deadly force by the police during their operations. “It is not that the police must not use force to defend themselves, and to defend us, but that use of force must be reasonable and proportionate,” Williams said.
What Williams did not bother to say is that Crime has gone up exponentially. Which is not surprising once one understands what is ultimately important to (indecom) and those who support the Act in its present form. The fact is that any unlawful killing the police does devalues us all . We should never be comfortable ever, that agents of the state’s kills an innocent person in our names.
And so we are forced to balance the need to secure our communities from dangerous blood thirsty criminals while doing all we can to ensure that those we ask to do the job do so in a way that is not antithetical to our values and the fundamental human rights of everyone.
That is no easy task but it must be done. What we must never do however is to hamstrung those we ask to protect us with their lives . Neither should we empower those who are quite content to slide in the blood of officers to fame and power.
It is indeed a pleasure that someone so concerned could dig deep beneath the surface and c the reason Y so many of us r forced to give up our pension and leave this noble organization to seek employment elsewhere. It bring tears to my eyes to c what’s happening to our country Jamaica because we fail to do what’s correct . Is it that our law makers not have other things thinking about ???