- FILE
Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields.
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
WHO CAN forget the concerned expression on Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields' face when he entered the Bryden Street community of east Kingston on March 12, in the heat of a gun battle between local gangs and police.
The skirmish, which left six persons dead was frightening, even for an experienced crime fighter like Shields, the Scotland Yard cop who was assigned to head the crime division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force six months ago.
DCP Shields has experienced other traumatic incidents since the Bryden Street incident. And though he believes the police have made some inroads into dismantling major criminal networks, he is not totally satisfied with how things have gone since he assumed office.
"You cannot be totally satisfied, especially when it's a new complex, demanding job such as the one that I have," he said. "I said from the outset that (tackling crime in Jamaica) it's not something that can be achieved by one person nor was I arrogant enough to suggest that I was here to cure all the crime problems in Jamaica," he added. "But if anybody expected to see any massive change in six months, they aren't living in the real world."
Shields was not unfamiliar with Jamaica's crime record before he joined the JCF. Through an agreement between the Jamaican and British governments, he was part of a team assigned by Scotland Yard to assist local law enforcement investigate the controversial shootings in Kraal, Clarendon in May 2002.
BLOODY CASES
Three persons were allegedly murdered by members of the JCF's Crime Management Unit in that small farming district. The case is still before the courts.
Shields, a lanky, silver-haired Londoner, has got some cases as bloody as Kraal during the past six months. Three of them took place in April and May.
The first was on April 15 when two men from the Bayshore squatter community of east Kingston were murdered and burned in the Rose Lane area of West Kingston.
Two days later, four persons were slaughtered by gunmen in Bayshore.
Closer to home, three policemen were murdered within nine hours on May 8-9.
Last week, DCP Shields told The Sunday Gleaner that the police are close to making arrests in the murder of the three cops. West Kingston don, Donald 'Zekes' Phipps, has been charged for murder in the Rose Lane case.
No arrests have been made in the Bayshore massacre.
Shields believes the police have had 'limited success' in cooling the homicide rate through several high-profile arrests including Phipps who is in custody.
He credits the JCF's "thorough and professional" approach to building cases for this breakthrough.
"When I arrived here in March, the murder rate was 52 per cent, higher than the same time the previous year," he pointed out. "Now, we've got that down by 20 per cent. That's not a massive success but it shows a trend in the right direction."
There has been some success. Crime has fallen considerably in August Town due to an increased and sustained police presence; gang violence in that St. Andrew community was a sore spot for the JCF in 2004 and early this year.
In contrast, crime in other perennial problem-plagued areas persist as murders continue at a fair clip in Spanish Town and the St. Andrew South police division.
Police records also show that over 1,100 homicides have been committed in Jamaica this year, in line to surpass last year's record 1,438.
ASKING TOO MUCH
Some observers, including Sunday Gleaner columnist Kevin O'Brien Chang, who has written extensively on Jamaica's crime situation, says expecting Shields to make significant changes in six months is asking too much.
"I don't think he has done anything wonderful or anything bad but we shouldn't expect him to wave a magic wand," said Mr. Chang. "What I will give him high marks for is blending into the Jamaican culture. He's done a good job of relating to the people."
To achieve any significant turnaround in crime, DCP Shields says the JCF must reinforce its armoury by acquiring key apparatus during the next six months, such as the Integrated Ballistic Identification System.
He disclosed that Government is in the process of purchasing this equipment, which he says 'would greatly improve our ability to identify forensic marks on bullet fragments and shells.'
Improving relations between the police and citizens in inner-city communities, bringing DNA capabilities and establishing a National Fingerprint Information System that records fingerprints electronically, are other measures DCP Shields, will help make the JCF a more formidable unit.
A man about townSTANDING AN imposing six feet five inches, Deputy Com-missioner of Police Mark Shields cannot be missed at a crime scene. According to some who do the social circuit, he is also hard to miss at soirées.
DCP Shields is reportedly quite the party animal. He has been spotted at some of Kingston's hot events including popular Jamaican model Nadine Willis' recent 25th birthday party, and has earned a reputation of being a man about town.
Some local commentators such as the Reverend Garnet Roper have been critical of DCP Shields' performance since he was appointed to head the Jamaica Constabulary Force's crime division six months ago.
Writing in the Sunday Herald recently, Reverend Roper stated that DCP Shields has become the blue-eyed boy of St. Andrew's élite. Given the high stress nature of his job, Mr. Shields has no apologies for 'stepping out.'
"I don't sit at home and worry about anything ... I work very hard and I play hard as well," he said. "I've got a good circle of friends and I go out and socialise with them. I probably spend more time downtown in different communities and I find that most of my support comes from downtown where there are people who are concerned about living in a state of terror."
Typical of many Britons, DCP Shields is also into sports. A former basketball player, he supports Arsenal in the English Premier League football competition and is banking on England to take back cricket's Ashes series from Australia this summer.
