Independent Commission of Investigation (INDECOM) Focus on Ethics

Police brutality!!! Wi waah justice! Him neva do nut’n! him innocent and dem just kill him fi nut’n!

Sounds familiar?

Here in Jamaica cases of police misconduct is quite common and we often see and hear reports of it on our daily news.  This issue of police misconduct is a problem that plagues our society.

The rate of lethal police shootings in Jamaica is one of the highest in the world. An average of 140 people per annum have been shot and killed, according to official statistics, for the last ten years, in a country whose population is only 2.6 million. Police accounts of victim-initiated "shoot-outs" continue to be disputed in many cases by witness accounts and contradicted by forensic evidence.

 There is an unparalleled level of police shootings in Jamaica, so says Baroness Nuala O’Loan, a member of the United Kingdom House of Lords and a former police ombudsman of Northern Ireland while speaking at an open day staged by the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) on, August 16 at the Old Hospital Park, in Montego Bay, St. James as seen in an article from the North Coast Times Jamaica in August 2013. The article also stated that statistics now show that between January and June of this year; 2013 there was 147 fatal shootings by police.

The Independent Commission of Investigations is an organization created to take on impartial investigations concerning actions by members of the Security Forces and other agents of the State that result in death or injury to persons or the abuse of the rights of persons; and for connected matters. The Commission took over from the Police Public Complaints Authority on August 16, 2010 and the scope of its operations is outlined in the Independent Commission of Investigations Act.

As stated in a Jamaica Observer editorial, the issue of loyalty among squad members, in particular, is a feature of most police departments worldwide. In some jurisdictions, it is known as the ‘Blue Code of Silence’ or the ‘Blue shield’. Here in Jamaica it is labelled it the ‘Squaddie Mentality’. Basically it is an unwritten agreement among cops not to report crimes, misconduct or mistakes committed by their colleagues. (Jamaica Observer Editorial, June 12, 2012) The editorial also stated that Mr. Terrence Williams and his team at the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) in his quarterly report to the Legislature stated that, “It is striking that in all our current cases, no member of the security forces implicates themselves or their colleagues in misconduct. Perhaps an explanation may be the ease with which agents of the state may collude before giving a statement.”

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