Bring back district constables to curb farm theft – Bobby Pottinger
Published:Sunday | August 21, 2022 | 12:10 AMChristopher Serju - Senior Gleaner Writer
The transfer of district constables from farming communities to tourist resort towns to protect hotels and other tourism interests has paved the way for farm thieves to operate with less chances of being caught, according to board director of the Coconut Industry Board (CIB), Alaric ‘Bobby’ Pottinger. He used yesterday’s 78th annual general meeting of the CIB to call for the return of the district constables and the greater use of non-custodial sentences to punish farm thieves.
Pottinger told coconut farmers gathered from across Jamaica, and those participating via Zoom, that district constables were once an integral part of rural communities, attending all farm meetings, and knew all the higglers from within the communities, as well those from outside. This insider knowledge made them invaluable assets to the other members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force whenever there was an act of praedial larceny.
“Today, the district constable is no longer in the communities. They are either at the police station or they are gone into the tourism sector to protect hotels and their guests, and so the community is left devoid of that presence,” he declared. “We need to get back some of these people who gone to protect tourists.”
The failure of farmers to consistently use the receipt book system is also contributing to the difficulty of the police in prosecuting cases of praedial larceny, according to the former custos of St Mary. He explained that a truck driver transporting farm goods needs to have at least three receipts on his person when stopped by the police – one for the goods purchased, another showing that the vehicle is contracted to transport market goods, and the other showing the market for which he is destined.
“When they go to the market, they should never get in unless they can show the origin of the crops, that is where the breakdown occurs,” he said. In fact, the truck and its contents should be seized until the driver/operator can show how he legally acquired the goods.
Pottinger recounted that, while he was custos, he organised the other custodes into a working group and they, along with the retired judges in the parishes, would try praedial larceny cases every month, which helped to significantly reduce the burden on the judiciary system. He pointed out that, when something is stolen from a farm, the case usually drags out for an extended period, with the farmer having to make the trip to court on a number of occasions, which can be very frustrating and time-consuming for them but works to the advantage of the offender.
“The fellow who has a case in court, he can come back and steal again, enough to cover his legal fees,” Pottinger told the annual general meeting.
Meanwhile, under his pilot project, Pottinger said they opted for non-custodial sentences, as well as the use of incarcerated inmates to do a day release programme in which the prisoners would work on farms and return to the prison at nights. He wants to see the initiative resumed and expanded.
“The non-custodial sentence is something that I am recommending that we use. We don’t have to send to prison for everything. They (can) work with probation officers on the farm and serve the sentence on farm and go back to the prison, and we must use it and make it work,” he stated.
“I was able to use short-term prisoners to go on farms and prune cocoa and other things, and the farmer paid for that job. Part of what they paid went to the prison and we opened an account at a commercial bank for the prisoner and a part of the money went to the family that he had left at home. The other part went towards the purchase of necessities for the prisoner.”