There Is Nothing Wrong With The JCF That Isn’t Wrong With The Jamaican Society.

Over the decades, a per­cep­tion has exist­ed in Jamaica that there is a prob­lem with how the Jamaica Constabulary Force car­ries out its man­date. All and sundry have had ideas on what needs to be done to effec­tu­ate change.
Various enti­ties and indi­vid­u­als have done sur­veys, indi­cat­ing that the police are bad, do a shit­ty job, and that changes must be made.
There will be no excus­es com­ing from me on the ques­tion of com­pe­tence and char­ac­ter as it relates to the JCF and its mem­bers; nev­er­the­less, no sin­gle enti­ty has done more harm and dis­ser­vice to this debate than the media in the way it reports on issues involv­ing the police, and how it edi­to­ri­al­izes on the sub­ject itself.

Having had the hon­or of serv­ing in the JCF three decades ago, and hav­ing left after only a decade, I too share some of the anx­i­eties that oth­ers have of the agency, and the way it goes about its business.
In fact, I left the agency, not because of the poor pay and work­ing con­di­tions, but because of the way the agency is struc­tured, run, and viewed.
How peo­ple are pro­mot­ed, renu­mer­at­ed, and cared for, remains crit­i­cal issues that con­tin­ue to plague the agency, result­ing in an attri­tion rate that far exceeds that of any police depart­ment glob­al­ly, except in some Mexican provinces.
The ques­tion of com­pe­tence and char­ac­ter of the senior lead­er­ship has been, and con­tin­ues to be, a sore issue, one that earn­ing a degree or two will not solve, but only serves to exacerbate.
In a coun­try that hard­ly has any pri­vate-sec­tor jobs because of the per­sis­tent crime prob­lem, it is remark­able that the JCF can­not meet recruit­ment tar­gets, and is bleed­ing the peo­ple it man­ages to recruit and train to the tune of 50 per month.
Even more vex­ing is that some of the peo­ple who leave, don’t go off to work in oth­er Caribbean Islands police depart­ments; some stay right at home and find oth­er jobs.

What that tells me is that they are dis­sat­is­fied, not just with the agency, but they are unwill­ing to make the sac­ri­fices they are asked to make, based on the lev­els of appre­ci­a­tion and remu­ner­a­tion they receive for their troubles.
The arro­gance of the peo­ple who com­mis­sion and car­ry out the sur­veys is com­men­su­rate with the arro­gance that per­me­ates the entire civ­il society.
No one both­ers to ask the police offi­cers what they would like to see change, con­sid­er­ing that they are doing the work. No one both­ers to speak to the offi­cers’ fam­i­lies to deter­mine why they sup­port their loved ones leav­ing the force.
No one both­ers to under­stand that some fam­i­lies have two or more mem­bers serv­ing in the agency. And equal­ly galling, they do not seek to find out from the poor­er class of Jamaicans, why they now refuse to sur­ren­der any more of the young bright fam­i­ly mem­bers to a job that is high­ly dan­ger­ous and ridicu­lous­ly thankless.
In a coun­try that Transparency International rates inher­ent­ly cor­rupt, those who crit­i­cize cor­rup­tion in the JCF sin­gu­lar­ly, as opposed to oth­er Government bod­ies, or, bet­ter yet, against the broad­er soci­ety, only show their bias­es and ignorance.

There is noth­ing wrong with the JCF that is not wrong with the Bar Association, the Health Sector, the Teaching pro­fes­sion, or any other.
The chal­lenge for the police is its high vis­i­bil­i­ty and the pow­ers it is giv­en under the laws. It has become every­one’s whip­ping boy, even the suit & tie crim­i­nals in high soci­ety because of its powers.
There is noth­ing wrong with the JCF that is not wrong with Jamaica. It is incon­ceiv­able that one can scoop up a buck­et of clean water from a dirty pool.
Fix the bla­tant cor­rup­tion in our homes and com­mu­ni­ties, and gov­ern­ment agen­cies begin to change to reflect the soci­etal changes.
In the mean­time, the idea that the Commissioner of police needs time to make struc­tur­al changes that will reme­di­ate the Island’s vio­lent crime rate would be laugh­able if it weren’t so con­se­quen­tial to those dying and the loved ones they leave behind.
Crime thrives in an envi­ron­ment of acqui­es­cence. Jamaica is a crim­i­nal-acqui­es­cent soci­ety, chock-full of all-know­ing opin­ion­at­ed peo­ple who knows how to do oth­er peo­ple’s jobs, but are hor­ri­ble at theirs.
When we have laws that hold every­one account­able, from Jamaica house to the card­board & zinc house, we may begin to see a change in the nation’s crime statistics.
Continuing to sin­gle out the peo­ple who are mak­ing the sac­ri­fices for ridicule, only fur­ther reduces their efforts and makes it more dif­fi­cult to attract new peo­ple to the profession.
But then again, that makes no sense to the crit­ics, because they have nev­er borne any of the sac­ri­fices, now have they?

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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.