Clean up the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), clean up Jamaica

THE EDITOR, Sir:

You should be commended for The Gleaner's editorial of March 17. Your article has clearly depicted that the running of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is not at all business as usual. This is indeed welcome news.

One, without a doubt, senses that stringent measures are being put in place to eradicate bad cops or, at least, reduce their presence in the force significantly.

The challenge for Jamaicans is that your revelation left us in a state of confusion, perhaps uncertainty, to the state of the JCF as it relates to corrupt and other criminal acts among its cohort. This is certainly no fault of your newspaper. One should not blame the messenger in delivering the hard facts. It was revealed in your article that the number of police personnel being brought to justice for corrupt acts has been increasing.

This situation is the tricky piece. One cannot be sure if the latter phenomenon is a result of the Anti-Corruption Branch's (ACB) augmented and unrelenting actions to weed out the bad apples among the bunch, or whether the numbers of such undesirable cops have simply spiralled out of control over the recent past, emanating in the vast cases of police personnel either being forced to retire, sidelined, arrested or, simply, fired.

public should assist

Irrespective of the reason(s) for the increased number of rogue cops being kicked to the kerb, so to speak, the ACB should not merely be commended but the general public should assist in providing the intelligence to this unit in order to handcuff these undesirable, so-called law enforcers once and for all.

In the same breath, the powers that be should not and cannot stop at the JCF. All publicly run entities should, in a sense, have an established ACB. First, these sectors should be retaught the definition of the term corruption. The reality is that corruption has been around so long that many don't regard the simple acts of corruption as such.

In the eyes of many, there is nothing untoward when a politician, for example, is able to issue strong orders for a policeman to recall an issued ticket offered to the politician's friend for a road or traffic breach. These are the tiny factors that slowly, but surely have led to the level of corruption we are currently confronting in all facets of our Jamaican life. Let's start from scratch and leave no stone unturned.

I am, etc.,

JOSHUA SPENCER

joshuaspencer@rogers.com

Toronto, Canada