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Jamaica needs a crime czar
HENLEY MORGAN
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
On a recent television interview, I was asked this question: Is the lack of political will on the part of government a stumbling block in the fight against crime? My answer was deliberately sarcastic. "The only will that is evident in Jamaica's crime fighting is the one that is read upon the death of people who are the victims of murder."
If our present government is interested in demonstrating that it possesses the political will to solve the problem of crime, it will do what is legislatively necessary to ensure that the newly appointed Minister of National Security, Col Trevor MacMillan, becomes Jamaica's first crime czar. Who is a crime czar, you may ask? A crime czar is one having great power and authority over all matters relating to crime in Jamaica.
To explain my proposal, I will draw a parallel with the United States of America. In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001, the president issued a National Strategy for Homeland Security supported by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The primary reason for the strategy, the Act and ultimately the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is to provide the unifying core for the vast network of organisations and institutions involved in efforts to secure the nation.
Interestingly, among the several departments that make up the DHS, there is the Office of Policy which provides centralised, co-ordinated focus to the development of long-range planning and resource procurement to protect the United States. There is also the Office of Operations Co-ordination, which is responsible for daily routine execution of the policy, particularly through the law enforcement agencies. Both (policy and operations) report to the same person, leaving no doubt as to where "the buck stops". Such wide-ranging power and authority make secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, a crime czar.
That's not how it works in Jamaica. The Jamaica Constabulary Regulations (1961), which was developed for a different time and circumstance, delineates the roles of the Ministry of National Security and the JCF in crime fighting. Policy and operations are separated, with the minister of national security maintaining responsibility for policy and the commissioner of police maintaining responsibility for operations. Such an arrangement (separation of powers) may represent the ideal philosophically, but administratively and for matters of accountability in a time of crisis, it weakens the crime-fighting effort.
It is interesting that the DHS, which comprises some 180,000 men and women, also has under its ambit units dealing with economics, health and social issues directly related to the fight against terrorism. In its report, Roadmap to a Safe and Secure Jamaica (May 2006), the Special Task Force on Crime (STFC) proposed the establishment of a National Council for Community Transformation (NCCT). A direct quote from the report explains the proposed role of the NCCT. "Properly conceived and implemented, such a body could effectively co-ordinate efforts toward addressing some of the vexing economic and social problems that give rise to crime and violence, reconstruct the fractured relationship between government and civil society and strengthen the national capacity towards meeting the country's obligations under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals".
The NCCT was conceived as the social dimension of the degarrisonisation process. I am boldly proposing that implementation of the "Jamaica fresh start" initiative, being touted by the prime minister, should be pursued within the framework of the NCCT. This, too, must report directly to the minister of national security, giving him control over another critical set of factors causing crime and violence.
I am not in support of the often-voiced view that the army should be disbanded and its resources absorbed into the JCF, or that soldiers should be given policing powers such as the power of arrest. But areas such as the Coast Guard and the military intelligence unit should be fully co-opted in the fight against crime and therefore report through Operations Co-ordination to the minister of national security.
What then will the office of the minister of national security look like? It should look like a war room. Headed by a minister with superior military, law enforcement or secret intelligence credentials; with high-level personnel heading up strategic policy planning, operation coordination, social re-engineering, a legal and human rights bureau and the like, the office will have control over its own cache of weapons, specialised vehicles, and other crime-fighting paraphernalia to be deployed when and where the situation warrants it. The crime czar will have as his singular focus, rescuing Jamaica from the "jaws of defeat" at the hands of criminals. This arrangement must remain in place until the level of homicides is reduced to 30/100,000 of the populace, about 750 murders per year, and sustained at that or a lower level for at least three years.
Given the threat that crime poses to Jamaica, it is time the government make the legislative, policy and operational changes to allow the minister of national security to operate like a crime czar.
hmorgan@cwjamaica.com
HENLEY MORGAN
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
On a recent television interview, I was asked this question: Is the lack of political will on the part of government a stumbling block in the fight against crime? My answer was deliberately sarcastic. "The only will that is evident in Jamaica's crime fighting is the one that is read upon the death of people who are the victims of murder."
If our present government is interested in demonstrating that it possesses the political will to solve the problem of crime, it will do what is legislatively necessary to ensure that the newly appointed Minister of National Security, Col Trevor MacMillan, becomes Jamaica's first crime czar. Who is a crime czar, you may ask? A crime czar is one having great power and authority over all matters relating to crime in Jamaica.
To explain my proposal, I will draw a parallel with the United States of America. In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001, the president issued a National Strategy for Homeland Security supported by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The primary reason for the strategy, the Act and ultimately the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is to provide the unifying core for the vast network of organisations and institutions involved in efforts to secure the nation.
Interestingly, among the several departments that make up the DHS, there is the Office of Policy which provides centralised, co-ordinated focus to the development of long-range planning and resource procurement to protect the United States. There is also the Office of Operations Co-ordination, which is responsible for daily routine execution of the policy, particularly through the law enforcement agencies. Both (policy and operations) report to the same person, leaving no doubt as to where "the buck stops". Such wide-ranging power and authority make secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, a crime czar.
That's not how it works in Jamaica. The Jamaica Constabulary Regulations (1961), which was developed for a different time and circumstance, delineates the roles of the Ministry of National Security and the JCF in crime fighting. Policy and operations are separated, with the minister of national security maintaining responsibility for policy and the commissioner of police maintaining responsibility for operations. Such an arrangement (separation of powers) may represent the ideal philosophically, but administratively and for matters of accountability in a time of crisis, it weakens the crime-fighting effort.
It is interesting that the DHS, which comprises some 180,000 men and women, also has under its ambit units dealing with economics, health and social issues directly related to the fight against terrorism. In its report, Roadmap to a Safe and Secure Jamaica (May 2006), the Special Task Force on Crime (STFC) proposed the establishment of a National Council for Community Transformation (NCCT). A direct quote from the report explains the proposed role of the NCCT. "Properly conceived and implemented, such a body could effectively co-ordinate efforts toward addressing some of the vexing economic and social problems that give rise to crime and violence, reconstruct the fractured relationship between government and civil society and strengthen the national capacity towards meeting the country's obligations under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals".
The NCCT was conceived as the social dimension of the degarrisonisation process. I am boldly proposing that implementation of the "Jamaica fresh start" initiative, being touted by the prime minister, should be pursued within the framework of the NCCT. This, too, must report directly to the minister of national security, giving him control over another critical set of factors causing crime and violence.
I am not in support of the often-voiced view that the army should be disbanded and its resources absorbed into the JCF, or that soldiers should be given policing powers such as the power of arrest. But areas such as the Coast Guard and the military intelligence unit should be fully co-opted in the fight against crime and therefore report through Operations Co-ordination to the minister of national security.
What then will the office of the minister of national security look like? It should look like a war room. Headed by a minister with superior military, law enforcement or secret intelligence credentials; with high-level personnel heading up strategic policy planning, operation coordination, social re-engineering, a legal and human rights bureau and the like, the office will have control over its own cache of weapons, specialised vehicles, and other crime-fighting paraphernalia to be deployed when and where the situation warrants it. The crime czar will have as his singular focus, rescuing Jamaica from the "jaws of defeat" at the hands of criminals. This arrangement must remain in place until the level of homicides is reduced to 30/100,000 of the populace, about 750 murders per year, and sustained at that or a lower level for at least three years.
Given the threat that crime poses to Jamaica, it is time the government make the legislative, policy and operational changes to allow the minister of national security to operate like a crime czar.
hmorgan@cwjamaica.com