COPS IN THE COLD - Officers bemoan years of hearings, leaving them broke, depressed even after cleared of wrongdoing by courts

Financially and mentally, Jerome Wilkins* is broken.

That’s because for nearly a decade, the 36-year-old police constable has been on suspension from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

What’s worse, Wilkins says, is the reason he has been suspended with just half his basic salary since August 28, 2010.

“Mi children dem a suffer because mi move so many times,” said father of two young children, ages four and six years old, who said he has been doing odd jobs to provide for his family.

According to his account, he was accused by superiors of unprofessional conduct based on a complaint by a justice of the peace (JP).

“He went and reported that I told him seh him a informa and if him know wah happen to informa,” Wilkins said, recounting the complaint filed by the JP following a 2008 verbal altercation at a car wash in Mandeville.

“Now, none a dat no come outta my mouth all now, enuh,” the constable said, insisting that he was falsely accused.

Notwithstanding, Wilkins said months later, he received a letter from his superiors indicating that he was to attend a disciplinary hearing into allegations that he threatened the JP.

He said after a “curry goat” trial, he was found guilty and told he would be dismissed from the JCF if he did not file an appeal within 14 days at the Office of the Police Commissioner.

“I got a letter saying if I appealed it, I would be placed on suspension, pending the outcome of the appeal,” Wilkins told The Sunday Gleaner in an interview.

Now, Wilkins says his case is lost in the system. He said that the last time he contacted the Office of the Police Commissioner for an update on the case was early last year.

“I was told that the appeal cannot be found. The personnel at the commissioner’s office said dem can’t find the appeal and that was the reason why me never get back a call,” he recounted. “Whether it gone a file 13, whether it was misplaced, we don’t know.”

Wilkins is one of just over 60 cops currently on suspension or interdiction for periods ranging from two to 10 years, according to statistics compiled by the Jamaica Police Federation. Cops on interdiction are paid a percentage of their salaries while those on suspension usually get no salary.

Sergeant Patrae Rowe, chairman of the federation which represents cops up to the rank of inspector, believes Wilkins’ case is a clear indication that the system established within the JCF to handle the reinstatement of members is broken, “inhumane” and needs to be overhauled.

“We ask for the entire system of reinstating police officers to be looked at and reviewed to ensure that police officers who are acquitted of charges, whether in the internal courts or the criminal court, be reinstated quickly, and we believe 30 days is a reasonable time,” Rowe said. “We believe that a lot of members who are on interdiction or suspension are forgotten by the JCF, and the JCF needs to take control of that.”

The Sunday Gleaner submitted questions to the JCF on the issue as directed by its spokesperson, Senior Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay, over a week ago, but up to press time, there was no response.

Jonathan Wilson*, a constable who spent six years on suspension without pay while he had two murder charges hanging over his head, blasted the JCF’s reinstatement system as haphazard.

“There is no set system in place. It depends on who like you and who you know or the connection that you have,” said Wilson, who also said that he was aware of cases where cops are returned to active duty “two weeks or a month” after their legal problems are resolved.

“If you are not one of somebody’s favourite persons, then you are on your own.”

SHOTS FIRED AT PARTY

Manuel Dawkins* was one of several cops revelling among patrons at a ‘fundraising party’ staged by a colleague in an area known as Dam Head in Spanish Town, St Catherine, in January 2016.

Shortly after midnight, with the party in full swing, gunfire rang out.

But Dawkins, who was a constable based in St Catherine, insists that he never fired his police-issued firearm that night.

Three months later, however, the father of three said he got a letter from the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), which marked the start of an ordeal that has left him mentally and financially broken.

According to Dawkins, the letter from INDECOM, the agency mandated to investigate alleged misconduct by agents of the state, indicated that his police-issued firearm was among several weapons that had to be handed over for forensic tests.

“On December 13, 2016, I was formally charged with discharging my firearm within 40 feet of a public thoroughfare,” he recounted, adding that two colleagues who were at the party were also arrested and charged.

Not long after, Dawkins said all three were suspended without pay.

According to him, the case crawled through the court system before all the charges were dismissed by a judge at the Spanish Town Parish Court on May 18, 2018, after prosecutors offered no evidence against them.

“Everything in terms of paperwork has been completed and sent to the relevant authorities, but we have not been furnished with any information on reinstatement. No call, nothing at all,” he told The Sunday Gleaner two years later.

To compound things, Dawkins says he is aware of several cases with far more serious allegations where the cops have already been reinstated.

Though he is still awaiting reinstatement, Dawkins disclosed that last year he signed a new two-year contract to remain in the JCF.

In 2014, Constable Fitzgerald Mullin* and a colleague were interdicted after a detainee they were guarding escaped from the Mandeville Regional Hospital.

The detainee was recaptured several months later.

Mullin said that following an investigation by the Bureau of Special Investigations, the arm of the JCF that investigates cops, he and his colleague were cleared of any wrongdoing in the escape.

However, he said, since then, they have not been able to return to work because of a drawn-out internal disciplinary hearing ordered by superiors.

The three cops interviewed by The Sunday Gleaner requested that their names are not published out of fear that going public would affect their case. The Jamaica Police Federation has, however, confirmed their suspension or interdiction.

Rowe explained that under the JCF’s reinstatement system, a police inspector is required to attend the court hearing of a cop facing charges “to report on the proceedings as well as report on the conclusion”.

He said in cases where cops are found not guilty, the inspector is required to write a report that is sent, along with the acquittal notice, through the divisional level to the commissioner’s office for a determination on reinstatement.

Internal disciplinary process

The Police Federation chairman believes the breakdown in the system occurs where cops are exonerated by the court, but must face an internal disciplinary process. “That sometimes takes years to complete,” he said.

The three cops insisted that they are being treated unfairly. They complain, too, that being separated from their jobs have taken a tough emotional and financial toll on their families.

Mullin, a father of five, disclosed that he has turned to farming – “raise two chicken, plant likkle yam, likkle carrot and some other things” – to provide for his family.

For Dawkins, the toughest part is not knowing how his ordeal will end.

“This has affected me mentally, physically and all the ‘ally’ you can think of,” he lamented.

“I have lost just about everything,” he added, disclosing that sometimes he is unable to provide for his children.

 

*Names changed on request.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com