Dennie Quill, Contributor

There is a new boldness among Jamaica's well-armed criminals. Public terror is spreading in the drive-by killings that have left citizens in the Kingston metropolitan area shocked and traumatised and wondering where next.

The brazen-faced criminals include those responsible for shooting to death a minibus driver as he attempted to seek refuge at the Central Police Station and those who cut down two teenagers as they were having their supper.

Rage among the police

While the frightened citizenry is trying to determine what accounts for this new level of savagery, I detect a kind of rage among members of the police force.

Recent utterances by the chairman of the Police Federation have left many people thinking that the police are bitter, frustrated and dissatisfied with the status quo.

While pressing his case for better pay and improved working conditions for the rank and file, Corporal Raymond Wilson's recent outcry about policy direction may serve to send the wrong signal to criminals.

Outgoing senior crime fighter Reneto Adams said recently that morale in the police force was at an all-time low. He said many police officers were merely going through the motions. Are the criminals exploiting the obvious discontent of the police?

Many of the members said the discontent began with the recruitment of foreign officers who were brought in at considerably higher salaries and perquisites, and whose social quotient was greater than their local colleagues.

The fact that the former head of the Jamaica Defence Force Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin was given the job of commissioner was seen as rubbing salt into the wounded egos of Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) members.

As far as the performance of the foreign officers is concerned, they can best be described as ineffective because public hope that they would have put a dent into murder and mayhem has been dashed. In fact, the JCF has had to call in some of its retired members to help solve the runaway crime facing the nation.

Simmering discontent

It is no secret that members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) have always felt superior to the police. In the past, the JDF has derided and ridiculed the JCF. So now, the JCF must deal with the fact that the commissioner is an ex-army man and the minister of national security is also an ex-army man.

This is not being talked about publicly, but there is every indication that this problem is simmering just below the surface and needs to be finessed.

Another area of frustration among the members of the JCF concerns the suspension of the death penalty.

Capital punishment is a contentious issue. Every time there is a flare-up of violence the debate is renewed. Legal challenges mounted against murder cases, while they work their way through the various courts have resulted in the suspension of the death penalty for a number of years.

I have heard policemen argue that men on death row are usually responsible for multiple killings. They feel that if these men are put to death it would send a signal to their cohorts and, of course, they would never be able to kill again.

Opponents of the death penalty say it does not act as a deterrent to murder. I guess these people might also argue that imprisonment does not act as a deterrent to crime. So is the answer to abandon the prison system? I think not.

Rogue members

The new minister of national security, Colonel Trevor MacMillan, has consistently cited corruption in the police force, and during the time that he served as commissioner, one of his major challenges was to deal with rogue members of the force. Does Corporal Wilson fear a wide-scale weeding-out of those who are corrupt?

The federation chairman needs to talk to people in the inner city and hear how they feel about his members. There is consensus that the police cannot be trusted. There are reports of shakedown. There are claims of injustice.

I once heard two women talking about a crime that had taken place. They knew the perpetrators, but could not devise a means of relaying the message to the police for they feared that the information would get back to the criminals.

Why not write an anonymous letter, I suggested? One of the women looked at me as if I were insane. I could see fear imprinted all over her face because she was convinced that her cover would be blown.

So, what can we expect in the next few weeks and months?

If the police who are sworn to protect and serve feel they are not being treated right and do not have the tools or the will to do the job, then God help us all.

Send feedback to denniequill@hotmail.com or columns@gleaner jm.com.