Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) James Palmer, commandant of the Jamaica Police Academy, is defending the institution from claims made by some members of the police force, who said Detective Constable Carey Lyn-Sue broke an established "code of silence".

In a story published in The Gleaner yesterday, some policemen claimed the detective constable had violated a 'secret pact' that is unofficially taught during training at the police academy.

However, SSP Palmer has blasted those cops, saying such a pact has never in any way been taught at the school.

"It has never been a part of any curriculum at the school," SSP Palmer said. "That is that particular policeman's views. That is nothing that is being taught at the school or being condoned at the school, and there is no such culture at the school where any policeman is taught to have any secret pact.

He added: "If he does anything, or she does anything, then it is his or her own personal approach to things, not from a departmental perspective."

The academy, which is located at Twickenham Park in St. Catherine, graduates hundreds of recruits each year.

Meanwhile, Sergeant Dalton Scott, president of Cops for Christ, told The Gleaner yesterday there was a concept taught at the school which teaches comradeship and oneness and, at times, is misconceived as an avenue for wrongdoing.

Espritdecorp

"There is a thing that we are taught in training school called Espritdecorp; that we must stick in comradeship, so no police is going to be on patrol and something happen and they don't defend each other by writing a collaborated statement to collaborate each other," he said.

"Sometimes it is fabricated, sometimes it is not the thing that happens, but they do it in form of collaboration."

SSP James, however, said that the concept of Espritdecorp is not to be used in a negative light.

"This thing of Espritdecorp, where it is seen in the context of conjuring stories and that sort of thing, it is not tolerated. We do not condone wrongdoing one iota, the thing is clearly spelt out as an organisation. We bond to each other in the context," he said

- M.B.