Letter of the Day | Urgent action needed at JCF’s cybercrimes unit

THE EDITOR, Madam:

A number of lottery scamming and cybercrimes cases are being dismissed in the courts due to outstanding reports that should come from the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) cybercrimes unit but are not forthcoming, some for years.

Last year August, Chief Justice Bryan Sykes had to throw out approximately 53 cases due to outstanding cybercrimes reports, some due from 2017. This problem is still occurring in 2024.

This unacceptable, alarming, and reprehensible situation is a negative indictment on the JCF and its leadership.

The JCF’s Communication Forensics and Cybercrime Division – which comprises experts in handwriting, information technology, communications, forensics, cybercrime and ballistics – is grossly underfunded and understaffed. These specialists are also not being paid at international market rates and so there has been a frequent turnover from this unit, especially over the past five years. Some of these experts leave for better paying jobs in countries such as Germany, Australia, the United States and Canada.

Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang, and Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke must prioritise upgrading the salaries of the specialists assigned to the cybercrimes unit by at least 200 per cent.

The capabilities of the unit must also be upgraded, which includes training. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigations can assist in this regard. Cybercrimes investigators should, on a yearly basis, go overseas to undergo intense and complex training to keep up to date with the ever-evolving levels of cybercrimes, lottery scamming and cyber fraud.

It is most imperative that the unit be brought up to international standard to successfully investigate all types of cybercrimes. The unit must be adequately resourced to the level where it is able to keep up to date with equipment and software.

BRING BACK KEVIN WATSON

I am also publicly appealing to the minister of national security and the newly appointed police commissioner, Dr Kevin Blake, to bring back the no-nonsense Sergeant Kevin Watson to once again head the Anti-Lottery Scam Taskforce. Watson had a high success rate in putting a dent in lottery scamming in western Jamaica.

Minister Chang is absolutely correct when he said that lottery scamming is a grave and serious national security threat and is the principal cause of the majority of murders in western Jamaica. Therefore, the Government should take urgent and drastic action to eliminate this threat to our national security.

ROBERT DALLEY