David Batts, Contributor 
Batts
In a democratic society the solution to crime does not lie in the removal of the democratic rights of some. Given Jamaica's history, cultural development, and the phenomenon of the garrison, all of which I need not detail, the permanent solution, if our democratic tradition is to be preserved, lies in the following mix of approaches:
(a) Reintegration of garrisons and other depressed communities:
This will require a mix of social, political and security force interventions. These communities need to enjoy enhanced police presence and protection by day and night. 'Community policing' is the jargon now used, but it means no more or less than that which is expected of the police in a democratic society. Resources must be withdrawn from other areas to allow for sustained policing of these depressed communities. The impact will be three-fold:
(i) Displacement. It will displace the negative elements that will either freeze or flee. A police presence will serve to prevent crime and also improve response time where crime has been committed.
(ii) It will restore confidence and mutual respect. The police will get to know the members of the community who, in turn, will welcome and appreciate that the agents of the state, are their servants too.
(iii) Intelligence-gathering will be enhanced. Debriefing sessions (weekly) between the cops on the beat and the local detectives may yield tremendous benefits.
Reintegration will also require a 'Lift Up Jamaica'-type of approach by the social agencies. The zinc fence must go (or be cut in half); gardens must emerge, open spaces created and each householder made responsible and if necessary, given the tools to improve his surroundings. Pathways need to be widened so that garbage can be collected (if necessary under police escort until the situation changes); similarly, mail must be delivered. There needs, in all of this, to be a total freeze on the growth of squatter communities. The political parties need to speak with one voice in support of the effort.
Firm but fair policing
The term 'hard-core policing' is now used in contradistinction to 'community policing'. This mindset needs to be adjusted. Jamaica needs good policing. That is, policing which is firm, but fair. All police officers must be prepared and ready to confront the wrongdoer who offers resistance. All police officers must protect the rights of all citizens, even the wrongdoer, because he, too, has rights.
It is my view that the several special squads (with the-out-of-uniform cops roaming about with M16) need to be abolished. To be fair, these are not as evident as they were in the past. Similarly, our Mobile Reserve, as structured, should be dismantled and those offices assigned to regular policing.
13. Jamaica does, however, need a Rapid Response Unit in the nature of the American SWAT team. A specially trained team of professionals which will be ready at all times, day or night, to respond by land, sea or air whenever called upon by the regular police. This need became evident to me when our security forces took several hours to respond adequately to outbreaks of violence in 100 Man Lane and in Mountain View some years ago. This is not good enough if the armed gangs are to be successfully confronted.
I proposed in a speech to Rotary in 2005 that this rapid response should be created using elements of the military, perhaps volunteers from the Second Battalion. Approximately 900 men/women should comprise this unit, which would be deployed at strategic locations across the island and operate on rotational shifts. They will spend their time training, scenario-planning and be equipped with detailed maps, aircraft lift capacity and armoured personnel carries. The aim being to have a response time of 30 minutes or less to flashpoints anywhere in Jamaica.
14. The firm but fair policing strategy needs also to involve increased detection surveillance undercover and forensic methodologies. May I suggest, also, that beat and patrol officers should be scientifically deployed? A group of six patrol officers walking together in the plaza at Half-Way Tree is not as efficient as groups of two spread over a larger area but in radio contact. Beat officers should be regularly debriefed on a scheduled basis by detectives. Similarly, patrol cars stationary and strategically positioned can shorten response times and cover larger areas than deployment from police stations. Each police radio car should be monitored by GPS technology.
15. It is now time to consider having only one body responsible for holding the police to a high professional standard. It should be allowed to discipline officers for unprofessional conduct, whether or not the director of public prosecutions has made a ruling, and whether or not an officer has been acquitted on a criminal charge. The belief that disciplinary proceedings must abide the result of a criminal trial is false because:
(i) The issues are not the same, and
(ii) The standard and burden of proof is not.
The commissioner of police, I believe, should be given constitutional protection and his method of appointment placed on a more independent footing.
effective system of justice
Persons accused of crime must know that justice will be sure and swift. Delay will mean injustice to the accused (as well as to the victims). There needs to be a comprehensive (not piecemeal) implementation of the many reports and recommendations. I will not detail them here, but the reason for, and the route to achieve an efficient but fair system of justice, are well documented.
Offender Rehabilitation and Reintegration
It stands to reason that if we have a high crime rate, full prisons and most offenders repeat, crime will escalate. Our failure to invest heavily in prisoner reform has been a major cause of spiralling crime. Incarceration should not mean dehumanisation. On the contrary it should be about rehumanising. The aim should be to cause each ex-convict to leave equipped with a trade, and if he never leaves to be able to spend time productively. The details on these initiatives I will leave to the experts. A social intervention strategy needs to be designed and implemented with respect to the many criminal deportees received from the United States each year.
Economic Freedom and Opportunity
The state should seek, by administrative changes, to open the doors of opportunity. The young man with an idea to raise chickens, or make building blocks, or learn trade, should have access to capital. The man who owns a car and needs a PPV licence should not or be made to feel that the process is designed only to frustrate this venture. There must be standards, but these should be clear to all and applied equally. In short, a way needs to be found so that the energy and ideas of our youth in the many churches, youth clubs and community organisations can be channelled into and given free expression in economically beneficial activities and programmes.
Marlon Palmer (left) and Omar Scott, participants in phase 2 of the Lift Up Jamaica Programme, construct a picket fence at Market Street in Falmouth. The project, valued at approximately $1.2 million, provided employment to over 30 participants. Similar type programmes are needed by social agencies across the country.
Values and Attitudes
The wrong message is sent when youngsters in a community see that even in death it is the 'don man' to whom the political leaders pay respect. Our politicians must recognise that the basic school teacher and the local shopkeeper, rather than the enforcers, are the models to uphold. The citizenry, particularly at election time, need to be reminded of certain values - speech, conduct, attire, 'fair day's wage for a fair day's work', among other things. In this regard also, civics and one's role as a citizen should be a compulsory course of study at all levels of the educational system. As a nation we need to question whether laws which criminalise substance abuse and practices which are part of the cultural milieu really serve the purpose intended. Is not moral suasion and education the better way from a utilitarian standpoint?
extreme repression
This, then, is the six-point approach to the fight against crime and violence in Jamaica. The current high murder rate has been 150 years in the making. It will not end overnight. The violence which characterised slavery and slave rebellion was regarded as extreme even by contemporaries of the period. The Morant Bay Rebellion and the means used to suppress it demonstrated that this excess of violence did not end with slavery. Periods of upheaval followed by extreme repression characterise the history of Jamaica. Today, injustice, inequality, poverty and fractured family life provide fertile ground for the crime and violence we experience.
The promise at independence of justice and truth being ours forever did not materialise. Our political leaders, for the most part, sacrificed principle on the altar of political expedience. Truth was the first casualty, and with that went any hope of justice.
Indeed, the efficiency, uncertainty and general failure of our system of justice has been a catalyst for spiralling crime. On the one hand persons realise there may be no, or little consequence, for doing wrong, and on the other hand, the society observes sceptically that agents of the state break the same laws with impunity. Illegal detention by the police, the net-fishing approach to crime solving, beatings in lock-up, extrajudicial killing and the profitable but illegal drug trade, have fostered the growth of an underworld with a different value system and little regard for established institutions. Many communities look to this underworld for justice and economic salvation.
The solution, I submit, cannot be further injustice. The solution must be pragmatic, holistic and be such as to positively impact attitudes and behavioural norms. More, not less, justice and truth is required. It is my opinion that the proposal by the prime minister to restrict liberty and abrogate rights will not fit this bill, and increase, rather than stem, Jamaica's slow slide to anarchy and/or revolutionary dictatorship.
David Batts is an attorney-at-law
