Only a day ago, I wrote about the state of policing in our country, the lack of training, the level of lawlessness in our society, the lack of legislative support from the government and opposition, and the complicity of the judiciary in fostering attacks on our police officers.
But that’s not all. Not only are they not paid well, but they are not given the tools to do their jobs. For its part, the force has a bunch of young officers who are forced out into hostile inner-city communities that are volatile war zones without backup support and, worse, without senior supervision.
I guess this was what Commissioner Antony Anderson was hired to do. I mean, the much-vaunted transformation of the Force the Prime Minister bragged that Anderson was engrossed in, and what National Security Minister Horace Chang chastised us for and demanded that “we haffi gi tony a chance.”
This is an abject failure if this is the result or even part of what a transformed JCF will look like.
No one should be under any illusion that there are not enough senior officers in the force; in fact, there is an overabundance of them, more than the average person understands. Along with Anderson at the top of the force are, to the best of my recollection, four (4) deputy commissioners. There are approximately thirteen (13) assistant Commissioners of police… If there have been changes to the structure of the 12,000-member force in that regard, I stand to be corrected, but the numbers would be higher, not fewer, which goes to my point.
Additionally, the force has a phalanx of Senior Superintendents, Superintendents, Deputy Superintendents, and Assistant superintendents in what is characterized as the gazetted ranks.
Then there are Inspectors, the rank between the gazetted and rank-and-file officers. Still, Inspectors are not gazetted, even though their uniforms are the same as those of members of the gazetted ranks. Their caps are ringed with a red band, while the caps of the gazetted ranks are all black.
It kills me to explain this tired, old, archaic structure that I absolutely hated even when I served, but I believe it is important that I do so for the benefit of my readers.
So ask yourselves why, whenever there are these tense moments where officers are forced to deal with these lawless elements, there is never backup support to put down the lawlessness, nor are any supervisors rushed to the scene.
No, it’s not that they do not have the vehicles; they have vehicles to drive home, so there are vehicles. But why are they sitting in offices anyway and not out on the streets doing police work?
Why are sergeants and inspectors at the station and not on the street? Why are superintendents and senior superintendents not quickly rushing to the scene like the one in the video above?
Many people now see the nice new uniforms that officers wear today. Uniforms, I might add, that I have pushed for officers to be equipped with for years.
They may even think that this means the force is better than the force of the past. To that idea, I call bullshit.
This force lacks cohesion, training, and, most importantly, the most important element for a police department: esprit de corps.
Carolyn Gomes, a Pediatric Doctor who gained her policing bona fides during pediatric studies, convinced the dunces in government that esprit de corps was a bad thing, a blue wall of silence that should be abolished. She also convinced them that our police leadership should come from the same morass swamp from which she emerged.
So today, the force has a bunch of P.hDs who cannot tell you the difference between their heads and their asses.
As a consequence, the young, untested officers are left to fend for themselves on the streets, damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
The following is a list of senior people the JCF has on its webpage; it characterizes them as Portfolio Officers.
This is (not) a representative sample of the number of senior gazetted officers in the Constabulary Force.
It simply means that some people are created more equal than others. Missing from this list are many other Senior officers who, though given responsibilities, do not cut the mustard as portfolio officers.
Commissioner: Antony Anderson. CD, JP, MDA, B.Eng (Hons.)
Deputy Commissioners: Clifford Blake. Deputy Commissioner of Police Strategic Operations Portfolio.
Richard Stewart, OD, M.Sc., LL.B. (Hons.), B.Sc. (Hons.), attorney-at-law, psc. Deputy Commissioner of Police Administration and Support Services Portfolio.
Fitz Bailey, OD, M.Sc, A.Sc, psc. Deputy Commissioner of Police Crime and Security Portfolio.
Dr. Kevin Blake, OD, PhD, M.Sc., B.Sc. (Hons.), PC Deputy Commissioner of Police Force Development and Logistics Portfolio (FDLP).
McArthur Sutherland Assistant Commissioner of Police Inspectorate and Professional Standards Oversight Bureau.
Karina Powell-Hood Assistant Commissioner of Police Staff Officer. Stephanie Lindsay, Senior Superintendent of Police Corporate Communications Unit (CCU). Gary Francis, Senior Superintendent of Police Police Emergency Communication Center.
Clifford Chambers, Assistant Commissioner of Police Area One.
Vernon Ellis, Senior Superintendent of Police St. James Divis.
Wayne Josephs, Senior Superintendent of Police Westmoreland Division. Winston Milton Superintendent of Police (Actg) Trelawny Division.
Ian Mowatt, Superintendent of Police Hanover Division.
Calvin Allen, Assistant Commissioner of Police Area Two Commander.
Dwight Powell, Senior Superintendent of Police St. Ann Division.
Lloyd Darby, Superintendent of Police Portland Division.
Bobette Morgan-Simpson, Superintendent of Police.
Glenford Miller Assistant Commissioner of Police (Acting.) Area Three.
Carlos Russell, Superintendent of Police Clarendon Division.
Shane McCalla, Superintendent of Police Manchester Division. Coleridge Minto Deputy Superintendent of Police St. Elizabeth Division.
Donovan Graham, Assistant Commissioner of PoliceArea Four.
Marlon Nesbeth, Senior Superintendent of Police St. Andrew Central Division.
Tommilee Chambers, Superintendent of Police Kingston Eastern Division.
Berrisford Williams, Superintendent of Police Kingston Central Division.
Kirk Ricketts, Superintendent of Police St. Andrew South Division.
Michael Phipps, Senior Superintendent of Police Kingston Western Division.
Gary Griffiths Assistant Commissioner Area 5 Commander.
Allison Byfield, Superintendent of Police St. Thomas Division.
Howard Chambers, Senior Superintendent of Police St. Catherine North Division
Sherika Service Superintendent of Police St. Andrew North Division.
Christopher Phillips, Senior Superintendent of Police St. Catherine South Division.
As I said earlier, this list does not accurately reflect the gazetted members of the force, which is exponentially more expansive than those named here. So the question must be asked: With this bloated bureaucracy of Ph.D.s and other senior leaders, why is the force leaderless like a ship without a rudder?
I laud every member who seeks to better themselves by getting an education; I do not laud those who earn degrees and then join the police force to leapfrog over real police officers. Ask any of those lettered senior leaders from the Commissioner to explain the laws and police procedures and see if they know what you are talking about. Worse yet, ask them how many arrests they ever made. Yes, whether you like it or not, that’s what policing is about.
So, we have ultra-senior police leaders who know nothing about policing.
So, the leadership that allows this to happen should all be placed in an airplane with a person in a pilot’s uniform who has never flown an airplane. That solution makes sense to me.
Why are the Jamaican taxpayers paying these overweight posers to sit in offices posing as leaders while the young officers are on the streets unsupervised and, worse, unsupported?
The top tier of the JCF is staffed with some people with very impressive job descriptions, yet we see none of those characteristics in their portfolios trickling down to policing for the Jamaican people who want peace and lawful behavior. It must be made clear that the virago behavior we witness in these police encounters, particularly from the female agitators, is not reflective of ordinary Jamaicans.
This behavior comes from a particular subset that has been allowed to behave this way without consequence for so long that they believe their actions are lawful and acceptable. We need policing that changes this mindset. We need a justice system with built-ins that adequately penalize this behavior. We have neither the laws nor the inclination by legislators to do so because, though I cringe at admitting it, there are lawmakers who are criminals and criminal supporters.
The Jamaica Constabulary Force has been transformed into exactly what Carolyn Gomes and Jamaicans For Injustice, the foreign-funded anti-police agency that pretends to be about criminal rights wanted.
The Force ditched Esprit de corps, cohesiveness, duty, honor, dedication, and service for a bunch of largely overweight posers with more degrees than a thermometer.
Gomes and JFJ have succeeded where political interference failed: to destroy the morale and effectiveness of the JCF. Of course, Gomes did not do it alone; she did it with the help of her foreign handlers. Unfortunately for Jamaicans, the political leaders in the two political parties are too stupid to recognize that Gomes and what she stood for were calculated moves by her foreign handlers, who wanted the Island inundated with crime.
Even though the JCF is now nothing more than a double six in a pack of dominoes, her handlers are still trying to wreck the Island’s economy with warnings meant to stop tourist arrivals.
But then again, stupid is as stupid does.….…..
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.