Police Commissioner Owen Ellington
The Police High Command says it is concerned about the failure of some police personnel to locate witnesses for court. In a statement from the Constabulary Communication Network, Police Commissioner Owen Ellington says this action may result in criminals not being prosecuted.
Ellington comments came after Supreme Court Judge, Lennox Campbell, last week blasted police investigators involved in the murder case of St Catherine man Paul Brown. Brown was convicted last Friday in the Home Circuit Court of the 2007 murder of Clayton Black.http://jamaica-gleaner.com/latest/article.php?id=49209
The Police is a top-heavy Agency in my opinion, my personal feelings are that the department could scrap and abolish half of the gazetted rank structure(those above the rank of Inspector) and be twice as effective.The police department I have always believed would be better served if many of those khaki-clad people who sit around in the stations were on the streets doing police work. The country would get a bigger bang for it’s buck.
With that said, why is it the job of police officers to hunt down witnesses and haul them to court? Yeah I know, witnesses have to be protected ‚yada yada yada , guess what, there is no evidence many of these witnesses are in any danger and if they are all they have to do is ask the police for help. The fact is that most Jamaicans are looking for a way out of everything, a short-cut, an easy fix. No one feels a sense of civic pride in doing what they should do. So they renege on what they are bound to do and place the blame on the police. Don’t get me wrong there is more than enough blame to go around when it comes to the police and it’s competence or lack thereof. This issue is one of civic-duty, since people will not attend to those duties then they should be forced to, by means of legislation with teeth. Just saying.……
Who finds and protects these witnesses testifying in police matters? the responsibility of the police is to investigate and charged when the needs be, not to hunt down witnesses who do not want to be found. The force would be better served with these policemen hunting criminals and we would get a better bang. Justice would be better served if judges and lawyers work effectively to complete cases and stop hanging around for gunmen to threaten, maim or kill witnesses. Justice would be better served if citizens see it as their civic duties to put away criminals the way they attends court to put away law enforcers