Respect waning for overexposed JDF, study finds

A snapshot study by researchers at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) is suggesting that over-exposure of members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) has caused an erosion of the military’s reputation and public image.

The study comes on the heels of an RJRGLEANER-commissioned Don Anderson poll, which revealed that 94 per cent of Jamaicans have little or no confidence in the police, and that 75 per cent share similar sentiments for the army. It also suggests that faith in the JDF is waning, especially in the last six months which recorded a string of public confrontations with members of the JDF.

Acting director of Institutional Research at NCU, Paul Bourne, said the research employed a questionnaire distributed islandwide and that 831 Jamaicans participated.

Entitled ‘The Public’s Perception of the Operating Standards of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF): A Quantitative Inquiry’, the study featured seven Likert-scale items, open and closed-ended questions, and had a 3.4 per cent margin of error. The study started in July and was a month-long.

“What we did was ask the same questions over different intervals: 10 years, five years, two, one and six months,” Burne explained to The Sunday Gleaner, noting that variables included public perception of the JDF’s operating standards, joint deployment with cops, and public respect and fear of soldiers.

“We found that generally over the years people had an average view of the JDF. However, when it came to the last six months, the research is showing where that took a nosedive,” Bourne stressed. “The results are showing that Jamaicans believe the JDF is overused, that they are being used as police officers, and that it should stop.

“We found that the mystique of soldiers is constantly being eroded, and as that happens they are technically being seen as policemen,” he added, noting that the samples included individuals who had run-ins with soldiers.

INCREASED PUBLIC PRESENCE

Since 2017, the JDF has been more actively involved in on-the-ground crime-initiatives through the Zones of Special Operations (ZOSOs) and States of Public Emergency (SOEs), alongside the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

In February, the JDF and the JCF launched the Joint Anti-Gang Task Force, tasked with primarily targeting guns, gunmen and gangsters, with the deployment of specially trained members of the security forces, through the coordination of resources, including the sharing of intelligence, to disrupt criminal activities across the island.

These initiatives have led to increased interaction with soldiers and members of the public.

“The public is indecisive on whether the JDF is too frequently used jointly with JCF to police the streets of Jamaica ... [but] the various publics indicated that members of the Jamaica Defence Force who operate on the streets have lowered their professionalism and high standards in the last six months,” a section of the NCU study stated.

In response to how the JDF can bolster respect among the public, the researchers noted, “the findings revealed that the majority public believes that the Jamaica Defence Force can bolster respect among the residents of Jamaica by ‘having an independent entity investigate incidents relating to its members’, ‘responding quicker to issues following incidents involving members of the JDF’, and ‘engaging in community activities such as building schools, roads, indigent houses etc’.”

Two weeks after a copy of the study was passed on to the JDF for analysis, the organisation’s communication team said it would not respond to the probe, offering no explanation for the decision. This, even as the Ministry of National Security spends millions on public outreach campaigns aimed at bolstering respect among Jamaicans and the security forces.

In the meantime, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, former police commissioner and former chief of staff of the JDF, is adamant that while the images of public confrontations circulating on the Internet may cause one to think otherwise, the JDF is as respected as ever before.

“Whatever the public perceives based on one or two incidents, which I hope are isolated, I don’t think it is a fair assessment of the overall standards of the JDF,” Lewin told The Sunday Gleaner.

“I have always said we can’t have the military sitting down when they are needed by the public, so it causes me no concern when I see them on the road,” he continued. “It is all about how they (soldiers) are used and how they are managed, and the military prides itself on such structures and systems. I have seen no evidence of those breaking down.”

THE PUBLIC’S PERCEPTION

However, for social anthropologist Dr Herbert Gayle, NCU’s snapshot analysis is correct regarding public perception of the JDF in recent months. Other long-term studies are more revealing, which presents a more worrying situation for Jamaicans, he said.

“Yes, where there is a paramilitary and clear militarisation you are going to have a situation of erosion of the image of the JDF,” Gayle stated.

“It hasn’t lost the respect completely; but the greater ill is when the society, the people begin to accept this form of paramilitary/military type of national security as the norm,” charged Gayle, noting that for decades successive governments have relied too heavily on Jamaica’s military in an effort to suppress crime.

“It becomes a situation where national security begins to look like bad, abusive parents. We are teaching the public to accept the hardcore security syndrome, whose parenting tool is aggression. At the same time you are creating a generation of people who have become accustomed to that type of national security,” he argued. He recalled the shock of some overseas students after seeing local police and the military openly walking with rifles in public recently.

Professor Anthony Clayton, The University of the West Indies lecturer in the Institute of Sustainable Development, agreed that the public support for the JDF has diminished overtime.

He attributes this, however, to a lack of clear objectives about the partnership of JDF members with the police in communities, and a lack of a clear exit strategy, with regard to the SOEs.

“It seems pretty clear now that they (JDF) are losing the support of the communities concerned,” stressed Clayton, noting that for many years the JDF has been one of the most respected organisations in Jamaica based on professionalism and integrity.

“What has happened is that we have been obliged to use the JDF to support the police, and the Jamaica Constabulary Force does not have quite that same regard as the JDF. Many people see the police as having internal issues, corruption,” said Clayton, adding that while soldiers should primarily be supporting the police, that is not how it is on the ground.

“We have had these ZOSOs and SOEs without a detailed strategy and as a result soldiers have been left in these areas. As a result, they are starting to be seen as an extension of the police, and in some cases as the enemy,” the professor stated.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com