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Anti-corruption head says plea bargaining for cops coming soon
published: Tuesday | January 22, 2008
Mark Beckford, Staff Reporter
Head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force's Anti-Corruption Unit, Justin Felice. Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Justin Felice, head of the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), says his division is looking at a 'plea-bargaining' policy to induce policemen and women to reveal wrongdoing within the JCF.
"There will be some sort of policy there about reporting wrongdoing where officers are sort of encouraged to come forward," ACP Felice told The Gleaner yesterday. "However, we are duty bound to report criminal matters to the director of public prosecutions, who will make any decisions on any subsequent prosecutions."
ACP Felice's comments have come in the wake of Detective Constable Carey Lyn-Sue's admission in court last Tuesday that he fabricated evidence in a case.
In describing Detective Constable Lyn-Sue's confession as "positive", he used the opportunity to encourage other policemen and women to follow suit.
"I would encourage any officer who has committed any wrongdoing, any criminal act or any serious act of misconduct to examine their conscience."
ACP Felice, however, did not give a timeline of when the plea-bargaining policy would be implemented and said work within his unit was still in its "early days".
Last week's confession by the detective constable has drawn many reactions and Sergeant Dalton Scott, president of Cops for Christ, is urging that his case be treated as an isolated one.
"Here is a man who is saying I am following Christ, I'm sorry, I'm cleaning up my act," Sergeant Scott said. "It is out of the ambit of the police, it doesn't make anybody look bad, it doesn't betray anyone; the man is not a betrayer because there are rules and regulations that govern the force that says you are to do something a certain way and, if you go out of the ambit of it, then you are against the regulation."
Attorney-at-law Howard Hamilton, the former public defender, is appealing to Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin to keep Detective Constable Lyn-Sue in the force as an example of honesty.
"In defence of Constable Lyn-Sue, I wish to appeal to the commissioner, punish him as you must, but at all cost keep him in the force," Mr. Hamilton said in a letter to The Gleaner. "He must be a constant reminder to all other members of the force of what the conscience of a police officer who has sworn to serve and protect looks like, only then, maybe, our entire police force will come to recognise that theirs is a higher calling."
mark.beckford@gleanerjm.com
published: Tuesday | January 22, 2008
Mark Beckford, Staff Reporter
Head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force's Anti-Corruption Unit, Justin Felice. Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Justin Felice, head of the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), says his division is looking at a 'plea-bargaining' policy to induce policemen and women to reveal wrongdoing within the JCF.
"There will be some sort of policy there about reporting wrongdoing where officers are sort of encouraged to come forward," ACP Felice told The Gleaner yesterday. "However, we are duty bound to report criminal matters to the director of public prosecutions, who will make any decisions on any subsequent prosecutions."
ACP Felice's comments have come in the wake of Detective Constable Carey Lyn-Sue's admission in court last Tuesday that he fabricated evidence in a case.
In describing Detective Constable Lyn-Sue's confession as "positive", he used the opportunity to encourage other policemen and women to follow suit.
"I would encourage any officer who has committed any wrongdoing, any criminal act or any serious act of misconduct to examine their conscience."
ACP Felice, however, did not give a timeline of when the plea-bargaining policy would be implemented and said work within his unit was still in its "early days".
Last week's confession by the detective constable has drawn many reactions and Sergeant Dalton Scott, president of Cops for Christ, is urging that his case be treated as an isolated one.
"Here is a man who is saying I am following Christ, I'm sorry, I'm cleaning up my act," Sergeant Scott said. "It is out of the ambit of the police, it doesn't make anybody look bad, it doesn't betray anyone; the man is not a betrayer because there are rules and regulations that govern the force that says you are to do something a certain way and, if you go out of the ambit of it, then you are against the regulation."
Attorney-at-law Howard Hamilton, the former public defender, is appealing to Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin to keep Detective Constable Lyn-Sue in the force as an example of honesty.
"In defence of Constable Lyn-Sue, I wish to appeal to the commissioner, punish him as you must, but at all cost keep him in the force," Mr. Hamilton said in a letter to The Gleaner. "He must be a constant reminder to all other members of the force of what the conscience of a police officer who has sworn to serve and protect looks like, only then, maybe, our entire police force will come to recognise that theirs is a higher calling."
mark.beckford@gleanerjm.com
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