Police beef up crime-fighting efforts

Felice

KINGSTON:

Although last year the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) made significant strides in arresting and prosecuting corrupt members, assistant commissioner in charge of anti-corruption, Justin Felice, says that the force is moving towards a more preventative style of eradicating corruption.

Speaking in an interview with JIS News on Wednesday, he said that the force does not measure success by the number of arrest and prosecutions of its members.

"I would not want to say we've had a successful year, because we arrested police officers. What we are doing is to move into education and prevention programmes which are critical in stopping officers from becoming corrupt," he said.

He explained that what the force wants to do, is to ensure that the public have confidence in its policing, and will feel confident in contacting the anti-corruption branch, using the 1-800-CORRUPT line, if they see acts of corruption.

new strategies

He said that already the force, and its partners, are hosting a National Integrity Action Forum, which is a part of the strategies to prevent corrupt acts across the Government.

He said that there is a major commitment on the part of the JCF, and the Ministry of National Security, to stop corruption both in the force and among the public.

"There is also a joint initiative, with other public sector departments such as Customs, Excise, Inland Revenue, Contractor General and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). They have all come together in a national integrity action forum, where they are looking at ways of protecting the Government from corruption," he said.