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Jamaica Gleaner - Kingston,Jam
07 January 2007

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Police corruption: a malignant

Michael Williams, Contributor

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

- Lord Acton

Now why would an article responding to the confessions of a corrupt police officer solicit one of the most often repeated of quotations above? Simply put, Jamaican police officers operate in a manner which suggests and implies that they have absolute power to do what they will, to whomever they will, at any time they will.

Anecdotal evidence suggests - and every second person has a story - that our policemen and women misbehave almost with impunity. But, I must hasten to say that the corruption in the police force is a problem which spans cultures, countries and generations, because it is based on human weakness and motivations.

Because police organisations are arms of the state and even the lowest- rankingpoliceman can exercise wide powers, and because there are people who want to take advantage of that power, the temptation to act corruptly is inevitable.

According to Interpol's Global Standards to combat corruption in police forces, corruption is defined as:

a. The solicitation or acceptance, whether directly or indirectly, by a police officer or other employee of a police force/service of any money, article of value, gift, favour, promise, reward or advantage, whether for himself/herself or for any person, group or entity, in return for any act or omission already done or omitted or to be done or omitted in the future in or in connection with the performance of any function of or connected with policing.

b. The offering or granting, whether directly or indirectly, to a police officer or other employee of a police force / service of any money, article of value, gift, favour, promise, reward or advantage for the police officer or other employee or for any person, group or entity in return for any act or omission already done or omitted or to be done or omitted in the future in or in connection with the performance of any function of or connected with policing.

c. Any act or omission in the discharge of duties by a police officer or other employee of a police force/service which may improperly expose any person to a charge or conviction for a criminal offence or may improperly assist in a person not being charged with or being acquitted of a criminal offence.

d. The unauthorised dissemination of confidential or restricted police information whether for reward or otherwise.

e. Any act or omission in the discharge of duties by a police officer or other employee of a police force/service for the purpose of obtaining any money, article of value, gift, favour, promise, reward or advantage for himself/herself or any other person, group or entity.

f. Any act or omission which constitutes corruption under a law of the member state.

g. Participation as a principal, co-principal, initiator, instigator, accomplice, accessory before the fact, accessory after the fact or in any other manner in the commission or attempted commission or in any conspiracy to do or omit to do any act referred to in the preceding provisions of this article.

(http://www.interpol.int/Public/Corruption/Standard/Default.asp).

In recent years, approaches to examining the subject of police corruption have shifted from asking whether or not corruption exists in any given police agency, to asking questions about the size, nature and impact of the problem.

Decades of experience suggest that if you look for corruption in any police force, you will find it. Often likened to a disease, corruption can only be effectively addressed once its existence is recognised and I dare say, without the expectation of any realistic challenge to my assertion, that police corruption in Jamaica is a widespread and malignant cancer.

However, just as some diseases are considered taboo, so too is the topic of corruption in many police agencies. Talk of it can make police officials, particularly at senior levels, visibly uncomfortable.

visible in jamaica

This is because it draws attention to the murkier areas of policing which are often out of the sight of the public, although in Jamaica, it appears to be quite visible. It brings to the fore a critical tension between the occupational requirements of police members to combat criminals and the organisational needs of the police agency to be accepted in the eyes of the public. Simply put, police corruption lurks in the arena where a police officer's discretion starts and organisational control ends.

This assertion is adequately supported by an article which appeared in the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research in 2004 which said inter alia, "Police corruption is not an individual aberration of an incidental nature that can be readily combated with temporary, repressive measures.

The 'new realism' on this maintains that corruption and police misconduct are persistent and constantly recurring hazards generated by the organisation itself. Secondly, there is consensus on effective measures to tackle it and to promote integrity.

"Ingredients are strong leadership, a multi-faceted organisational strategy, a well-resourced internal affairs unit, proactive techniques of investigation, and persistent efforts to promote professional standards. The essence is a judicious and sophisticated balance between negative and positive social control."

The article suggests that policing is about the rule of law and due process: Corruption and other forms of police deviance undermine the legitimacy of the police organisation and by implication, the state.

A 'clean' police force is a crucial barometer of a healthy society. One can have few illusions about the difficulty of achieving this, but a comparative review of the experience in four societies - United States, Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands - provides clear indicators about reform, control and leadership in fostering integrity and in tackling corruption. The Commissioner of Police should hasten to avail himself of these studies and take action.

But the Commissioner of Police cannot act alone. As a former police officer in a jurisdiction that operates similar to ours, I find the confessions of the corrupt cop quite compelling.

the Knapp Commission

It raises the red flag higher. We now need something of the magnitude of the Knapp Commission on Corruption to investigate the problems of corruption, even if it requires the granting of immunity to reprobate cops to come forward in the search for truth.

The Knapp Commission (officially known as the Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corrup-tion) stemmed from a five-member panel initially formed in April 1970 by Mayor John Lindsay, to investigate corruption within the New York City Police Department (NYPD). The creation of the commission was largely a result of the publicity generated by the revelations on police corruption made by a police officer, Frank Serpico and Sergeant David Durk.

stringent quality controls

In the United Kingdom, the police force had similar problems with corruption. Policemen were running the drug trade from their precincts. When Margaret Thatcher came to power, she did what they did in New York - the same thing (among others) we will have to do in Jamaica: Raise the salary we pay policemen and women, raise the entry standard of the men and women we attract and place more stringent quality controls over the service.

The existence of corruption signifies a critical weakness of senior police officers' ability to exercise control over the police force. There is a strong temptation in the senior ranks to deny or play down its existence.

I am tired of witnessing and hearing of this problem yet so little is being done in a systematic way to alleviate the problem we are facing as a nation. Apart from issues of direct corruption, I have been involved in situations here at home, which provide proof of the absence of proper police procedures, organisational control and accountability.

This encourages unlawful and unprofessional conduct and other malfeasance which have the twin effect of the appearance of the involvement of corruption (even when it is not so) and the creation of an atmosphere, which in fact, fosters corrupt behaviour.

Three good examples are: (a) the pervasive practice of police officers to become involved in civil matters in which police have little or no jurisdiction; (b) the treatment of prisoners in police custody based on their perceived status and or their ability to reward police officers for special favours or privileges granted which, in many cases, should be basic rights; and, (c) the concomitant absolute and crass abuse of power and lack of civility that police officers sometimes exercise in dealing with members of the public, especially the poor and powerless.

But what exactly should police officers at different levels of management do in this regard? Lists of desired responsibilities and activities are easy to draft, but police managers operate in particular political, social and organisational environments. Their circumstances will determine whether or not such expectations are realistic.

managers must act

Managers themselves may be the beneficiaries of corruption. They may also believe the personal costs they face in tackling it are too high. For a police force to act effectively against corruption and other malfeasance, managers must have the will power, authority and organisational support to do so.

Similarly, they must be held accountable where they fail. When a police force is serious about tackling corruption, its managers must actively share this commitment.

The absolute crassness, lack of respect, uncouth, rude and unprofessional conduct and corruption that are rife in the Jamaica Constabulary Force have made many a good officer hang his/her head in shame since they too are often the victims of this very conduct. The problems facing the JCF are all too pervasive to be attributed to just a few bad apples.

The force is rotten and the behaviour of most front-line officers does not inspire confidence, neither does it afford ordinary citizens their human right to equal treatment and protection under the law or innocence until proven guilty, two of the pillars on which any justice system should be built.

The Justice Minister and the Minister of National Security should make haste to form a commission whose findings would be enacted with much haste after its investigations are complete.

This commission should have the same powers and legislative entrenchment that the Knapp Commission had. The commissioners should have the power to grant immunity, even to corrupt cops, to get to the bottom of the problem and to provide solutions for the same, because corruption is extremely difficult to study in a direct, quantitative and empirical manner. This is so because most incidents of corruption are never reported or recorded, official data on corruption are best regarded as measures of a police force's anti-corruption activity, not actual level of corruption.

We have a long, painful road to travel. We must start the journey today!

Michael Williams is a communications consultant. He holds a master's degree in comparative and public international law and served as a police officer in The Cayman Islands. He can be contacted at michaelwilliamsa@yahoo.com.

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Article sourced from

Jamaica Gleaner - Kingston,Jam07 January 2007

Police corruption: a malignant

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Jamaica Gleaner - Kingston,Jam
07 January 2007