The administration announced last night that it is attempting to recruit foreign police officers to work in Jamaica and said that requests are being processed by foreign governments.
Foreign cops to serve in intelligence, forensic analysisThe government also disclosed that it is spending J$200 million (US$3.2 million) to purchase an automated fingerprint identification system, but as with the recruitment of foreign cops, the security minister, Peter Phillips did not name the supplier or say when it will be in place.
In the case of the foreign police recruits to serve in the Jamaican constabulary, security sources say that Jamaica has asked the British to send officers to work here in areas of intelligence and forensic analysis.
Until now the Jamaican authorities have resisted calls, mostly from private sector officials, for them to recruit foreign cops to work here on a full-time basis to help tackle the island's worsening crime problem.
But the apparent relenting comes in the face of homicides in Jamaica moving to record levels this year, already surpassing the previous record of 2001 when 1,139 murders were reported.
Phillips' announcement of the new initiatives came in a radio and television broadcast aimed at bolstering public support for Operation Kingfish, a new police task force whose launch was announced on Tuesday. Its job is to go after organised criminal gangs and their leaders.
There are approximately 8,000 members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and just under that number in auxiliary forces. Officials here say that not only are they insufficient in the context of Jamaica's crime problem but that Jamaica, on a per capita basis, lags behind most of its Caribbean neighbours in its number of law enforcement officers.
"We are continuing our effort to recruit additional police personnel to increase the ratio of police to population," Phillips said. "Further, as indicated by the Prime Minister (P J Patterson) in his recent broadcast . we are making strenuous efforts to secure increased assistance from overseas partners. Specific requests have been made to secure officers from overseas to serve in the JCF. And this request is being processed."
Phillips, in the nearly three years he has been security minister, has signed a series of bilateral security agreements with the United States and Canada, mainly in counter-narcotics efforts.
At the launch of Operation Kingfish this week, Phillips announced that the initiative will involve co-operation with law enforcement agencies in the US and Britain and London's and Washington's top diplomats on the island came out to endorse the programme.
In fact, in a separate development his week, Phillips, on behalf of the regional trade and functional co-operation grouping, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) signed a security pact with Britain, in which the UK will help the Caribbean train law enforcement officers and upgrade regional security systems.
Phillips, in last night's broadcast suggested that Jamaica was busy implementing technological crime-fighting aides and listed the fingerprint system among them.
".We are currently in negotiations to purchase an automated fingerprint identification system at a cost of over J$200 million," he said, without elaborating.
It was not immediately clear if the government, as part of this project, is attempting to tap the technology used by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) for its voter registration system, which relies heavily on fingerprint identification.
That system was developed for the EOJ by the US technology company TRW Inc, which has established automated fingerprint systems for several police jurisdictions. Jamaican officials have in the past said that the EOJ owns the technology that underpins its system, which it paid over US$20 million to develop.
At present a new fingerprint law is languishing in a parliamentary committee. This law would give the police the right to fingerprint suspects at arrest, but this is being resisted by human rights group which prefer the existing law requiring an order by a judge or magistrate for fingerprints to be taken.
Other technology initiatives being implemented by the constabulary, Phillips said, was a new traffic ticketing system to track traffic offenders.
The police had also set up closed-circuit television surveillance systems in public spaces in the capital and this is to be expanded "in the course of next year", the security minister said.
Phillips also announced that the Special Anti-Crime Task Force (SACTF), headed by Senior Superintendent Donald Pusey, will be expanded with a section to be permanently based in Montego Bay.
"Another section of the SACTF will be deployed in central Jamaica, focusing initially on the parish of Clarendon," Phillips said.
The minister also said that the Jamaica Defence Force, whose capabilities he claimed have been upgraded over the past year, will be brought more centrally in the battle against crime.
Although he did not say what were these enhanced capabilities now enjoyed by the military, Phillips said: "I have directed that these be brought to bear particularly on those communities in the Corporate Area and St Catherine which have experienced particularly high levels of criminality."
