The Jamaica Government yesterday announced the creation of its latest security task force to combat organised crime, and in apparent anticipation of the doubters and sceptics brought out the top British and American diplomats in Jamaica to underline its credibility.
By Vernon DavidsonDubbed Operation Kingfish, the initiative - which officials insist will be intelligence-driven - will involve Jamaican police working closely with their counterparts in the UK and the United States.
In fact, at yesterday's launch of the task force, the Jamaican national security minister, Dr Peter Phillips, and the police commissioner, Francis Forbes, were flanked by the US ambassador, Sue Cobb and the British high commissioner, Peter Mathers.
Cobb appealed to Jamaicans to co-operate with the security forces.
"The people who suffer most from crime and violence are the ones with the power to stop it," Ambassador Cobb said. "This is what I have to say to the Jamaican people. Kingfish's success or failure rests in your hands. If citizens are unwilling to unite. to take back their communities, how can anyone expect change?"
This new initiative, one of many attempted by the authorities in recent years, comes 21 months after the Patterson Administration launched its previous big anti-crime programme in the year 2002, posting police and soldiers in communities the authorities said were being used by gangs as cover.
At the time, Prime Minister Patterson said the security forces were authorised to "move from a policy of containment to a more proactive mode of dismantling the paramilitary groups of organised criminals" which dominate several communities. However, that effort has largely petered out and with over 1,000 murders already this year, Jamaica is heading for a record year of homicides.
Yesterday, Phillips said he wanted to emphasise that this new initiative was different from previous efforts in at least three respects.
First, the task force, which has already begun operating, is drawn from vetted and carefully-selected members of the police force and the Jamaica Defence Force. "Therefore," said Phillips, "it begins with a high degree of credibility and trust and has available to it the best capabilities within the security forces"
Second, the capability of the task force will be enhanced through the active involvement of law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom and the United States; and
Third, the task force will be provided with legal advice in the preparation of cases from the very outset of the investigation so they will be able to better construct cases that will hold up in court.
Yesterday, Assistant Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds, who heads the new task force, told the Observer that the legal support was already in place. "The person has been identified and is actually doing some work with us," Hinds said. He did not give a name but described the person as someone with "a highly-trained mind with some expertise".
Phillips' declaration that the task force will focus on intelligence-gathering to drive its mandate of targeting and dismantling organised gangs was echoed by Commissioner Forbes, who said Operation Kingfish will exploit the gangs' weaknesses with the aid of high-quality investigators.
"Science and technology will lead the way, combined with old-fashioned detective work as we engage the most dangerous criminals in society at a new level," Forbes told guests at the mid-morning news briefing at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.
"To gang members out there, I say the time is now for those who want to stop running from the law," said Forbes. "Just like we did with the drug lords, we are now encouraging you, the little foot soldiers, to defect, work with us and throw the big boys in jail. The rewards are enormous, and relocation to a foreign country is always possible."
Since the start of this year, the police have arrested several persons who they say are major drug dealers, including one who was on US President George W Bush's list of drug kingpins.
Yesterday, Forbes, apparently buoyed by these high-profile arrests, warned that Operation Kingfish was the Jamaican authorities' message to criminals that law-abiding Jamaicans would no longer tolerate them. "Today we draw a line in the sand and say to the dons and gangsters 'we are coming to get you'," the commissioner said.
The announcement of Operation Kingfish came on the same morning that the police's information arm, the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN), reported that 44 murders were committed in the island last week, pushing the year-to-date murder toll to 1,141.
Of the 44 murders, 28 were classified as undetermined, eight were gang-related, four were attributed to robbery, three were reprisal killings, and one resulted from a domestic dispute, the CCN said.
Phillips acknowledged the negative impact that the anti-informer sub-culture was having on the authorities' ability to gather information that can be used to smash gangs and put away their leaders. However, he assured Jamaicans that the avenues set up for the public to provide the security forces with information were safe.
"Building on experience of past efforts," he said, "we have devised credible, safe and strictly confidential channels for people to pass information about criminal gangs."
He said that a new toll free number, to be administered by the Crime Stop Programme, will be announced in the next few days.
Later, in an interview with journalists, Phillips pointed to the UK's Operation Trident programme which, he said, achieved success after sustained effort.
"The returns don't come immediately," Phillips said. "People have to be convinced of your determination, people have to be convinced of the integrity of the organisation, they have to be convinced about the confidentiality which will be attached to information that they bring, they have to feel some successes bit by bit, and what we hope to do is to turn the tide by accomplishing all of those preconditions."
