CONCERN OVER what may be called hard crime and violence may well have led to a low-keyed public response to the announcement made by Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips in the Sectoral Debate that Government intends to expand the role and function of the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) to play the lead role in maintaining public order.
Under normal circumstances, the principal duty of any police force is to maintain public order, mostly by gently nudging generally law-abiding citizens to cooperate with the law. Mainstream policing in Jamaica over the last several decades has been forced into a paramilitary mode of trying to contain growing levels of violent crimes. In the meantime, general public disorder has gotten well out of hand. The ineffective response, only half-heartedly pursued, has been to create a multitude of specialised quasi-police agencies.
The new Minister, recognising the obvious, that " constant disregard for the law leads to contempt for the law," now wants to pursue a policy of non-tolerance of public disorder. We have in previous editorial comments mooted the consolidation of law and order agencies for a more effective, across-the-board response to the problems of deteriorating public order and crime. Minister Phillips, bringing new vision and energy to the Security Ministry, has taken the idea on board.
A central solution to the problem of public disorder, he indicated in the parliamentary debate, revolves around the rationalisation and reorganisation of the ISCF to incorporate several quasi-policing bodies. Among these are: the traffic, environmental, forestry and agricultural wardens and municipal police units. The remodelled ISCF, in carrying out the lead role in maintaining public order, will have specific responsibilities for law enforcement, with respect to illegal vending, praedial larceny, illegal mining, illegal logging and fishing, illegal sale of petroleum and operation of taxis, and unlawful conduct at public events which hopefully will not exclude political meetings.
Several other areas could be added such as noise abatement, illegal waste disposal, illegal signage, litter, breach of zoning regulations, vandalism, and so on.
The plain fact is that the society is being over-run by public disorder linked in a terrible cycle to growing disregard and contempt for the law. The non-criminal law, which sustains public order, is very poorly policed and there are large social and economic consequences. We must hope that the promised response to public disorder will become reality and soon.
