Motivated and equipped JCF will deliver results

Recently, there have been a few success stories where the JCF has yielded significant results as it relates to crime and violence in the country. Persons are put at ease when there are arrests and convictions. Those in authority should ensure that the members of the JCF are constantly motivated and have the technology to continue to improve their success rate.

Arrests give hope

12 Mar 2022

DISCUSSIONS ABOUT crime and violence tend to centre on the role of the police – specifically, what are they doing to drive down crime? This focus is understandable, since the prime mission of the police is to control crime and keep a nation safe.

Members of the public become outraged when crimes, particularly murders, remain unsolved mysteries. One of the ways in which we measure the effectiveness of the police in dealing with crime is their arrest rate. For the year 2021, for example, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) reported 1,463 murders, giving the country a homicide rate of 49.4 per 100,000 and sending Jamaicans into near panic mode. Disappointingly, less than half of those killings was solved. A mere 34.65 per cent, in fact, which translates to 402 suspects being placed before the courts.

When the crime rate soars, citizens expect to see a proportionate rise in arrests. Instead, too often there are reports with the inevitable noncommittal line, “no one was held” or “no motive was established”, or “men fled into the bushes”.

The most commonly used yardstick to measure police effectiveness is the clearance rate. This refers to the proportion of reported crimes for which arrests have been made. It does not, however, consider whether persons so charged are eventually convicted. In other words, did the police find the real culprit?

Jamaica’s clearance rate for 2021 was at 34.65 per cent, which represented a five-year decline. Indeed, the data for 2019, 2018 and 2017 showed rates of 35.8, 36.29 and 38.86, respectively.

INTERESTING PATTERN

To be absolutely fair, criminal conviction is not in the hands of the police alone. Much depends on the skill of the prosecutors, the effectiveness of defence counsel, cooperation of witnesses and other factors. But making an arrest is a first necessary step.

In the wake of recent headlines, we acknowledge that an interesting pattern is emerging of a police force which is heading in the right direction. Arrests have been made in a major weapons find at a Kingston warehouse involving persons “believed to be key players in the illegal importation of firearms”, and this certainly gives a fillip to the JCF’s strategy of taking illegal guns off the streets.

In another instance, two men were held for the stabbing death of a hotel manager in St Ann, mere days after his decomposing body was found in his vehicle. Arrests were made in drug finds in Portland and St James, and alleged lottery scammers are awaiting their day in court. Citizens, and victims of crime and their families, expect the police to develop strategies that will drive crime downwards. And if it is not possible to prevent crime, they certainly expect to see offenders behind bars.

We have highlighted these arrests, and one may argue that it’s too early for optimism. This is not a scientific assessment, admittedly. And, although the arrest rate may not provide a full picture of how effective the police are in their investigations of crime, these statistics provide a glimmer of hope to a nation that is partially paralysed by the daily killings across the island.

We hope our intuition is not wrong. That the JCF has sharpened its investigative machinery, possibly by using technology, and that their efforts will help to improve criminal accountability and, inevitably, the quality of life in our communities.

Let’s suppose that gang members and other criminals weigh the consequences and benefits of their actions. When they see arrests being made with regularity and their cohorts being placed before the courts, they may think twice about carrying out another nefarious act. A motivated JCF with improved investigative machinery will likely reap success in making Jamaica a safer place in which to live.

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