Adams, Shields to be reported to Police Service Commission

[Mosiah]

Adams, Shields to be reported to Police Service Commission
Karyl Walker
Wednesday, June 13, 2007

POLICE Commissioner Lucius Thomas says he intends to report Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields to the Police Service Commission for recent comments attributed to them in the media.
"It is a breach and I intend to follow it up with the Police Service Commission," Thomas told the Observer yesterday following a press conference at the Police Officers' Club to discuss the outcome of the Bob Woolmer investigation.
Since being relegated to a desk job in the aftermath of the Crawle trial in which he and five of his former Crime Management Unit colleagues were acquitted of murder in the shooting deaths of four persons in the rustic district, Adams, the flamboyant cop who once enjoyed the media spotlight, had taken a back seat.
But Adams, in an interview on CVM Television last week, called for Shields to resign his post as he had botched the investigation into Woolmer's death.
Shields has since responded to Adams' call with a salvo of his own.
"The question people should ask is what was SSP Adams' motivation, and what merit should one give to the opinion of a police officer who has been at the centre of so many police operations, including the incidents at Tivoli Gardens and Braeton?" Shields was quoted in a story carried by the Observer on Monday.
Thomas was adamant yesterday that both senior cops, known for their contrasting styles of policing, had broken the constabulary's rules relating to issuing statements to the media by officers under his command.
"There is a communications policy which the commissioner of police must adhere to," Thomas said.
The top cop also played down allegations that a rift was developing among the ranks of the constabulary over the wisdom of importing foreign talent to prop up and modernise the force.
"It is nothing significant. It happens in every organisation. Some believe that our local cops are capable of handling the situation and salaries are also an issue," Thomas said.

[Mosiah]

Strange! Adams has always been firing off, from his mouth as well as from his hip, and I've never heard anyone reporting him to the PSC. Reverse racism?

[Mosiah]

Cop says about-turn in Woolmer case spoils JCF record
ERICA VIRTUE, Observer writer
Wednesday, June 13, 2007

One senior cop has said that yesterday's announcement by the constabulary that former Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer had died of natural causes instead of being strangled as was first concluded in March, spoiled a 140-year record of the Jamaican police never being overturned on the cause of death in a murder investigation.
"It has never happened before. It is the first time in the 140 years of the JCF that the cause of death in a murder investigation has been overturned. Never," the senior cop told the Observer after yesterday's press conference where the police announced that they had now closed their probe into Woolmer's death.
"The police will have to live with this for years to come," said the clearly embarrassed police officer, who asked not to be named.
Since March 18 when Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room, the case has gone through a number of dramatic twists and turns and was the subject of speculation after Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields told journalists that the coach's death was being treated as "suspicious" a mere three hours after announcing that the cause of death was "inconclusive".
A few days later, the police announced that the report from government pathologist Dr Ere Seshaiah had determined that Woolmer died from asphyxia due to manual strangulation, and therefore his death was being treated as a case of murder.
Theories emerged in the overseas media that Woolmer was poisoned and that he was killed by a cricket mafia with deep involvement in match fixing.
However, after reviewing evidence in the high-profile case, three independent pathologists - Professor Lorna Martin of South Africa, Dr Nat Carey of the United Kingdom, and Dr Michael Pollenan of Canada - all concluded that Woolmer died from a heart attack brought on by a combination of illnesses.
Yesterday, while not overtly blaming Seshaiah, Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas said the local police had nothing to be embarrassed about.
"I don't know what is embarrassing really, as you put it, for the JCF," Thomas responded to a question. "Having yes. an incident occur of which we seek the professional help of others, forensics and otherwise, we are so advised, and we act on that, and we are very professional in what we do. That is why we are here this morning to share with you in a very transparent and professional way what took place, and where we go."
However, he admitted that the JCF will undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the way the investigation was conducted.
"Normally we must conduct a review to see if we did anything wrong. It is normal after any incident for us to look back and make this review and make recommendations where we go from here in the future, which will be done.," Thomas said.

[Mosiah]

Amazing what embarrasses our police officers. If all our police shootings were high profile enuff (read white victims) to warrant farin pathologists, he wouldn't be talking crap. Our police have done a million things of which not to be proud, but because the world is watching, now it's embarrassing.

"The police will have to live with this for years to come," said the clearly embarrassed police officer, who asked not to be named.

I wonder why he doesn't want to be named. Lucky he can "live with this for years to come." Others can't because they were murdered at the hands of his embarrassed JCF.


Idiot!

[Lazie]

I get the impression these people not too interested in the truth.

[MdmeX]

Dem need to TAKE these words out of the National Anthem - it's a mockery!

"JUSTICE", "TRUTH" be ours forever (whose Justice, whose Truth?)

[Rockman]

I am not surprised Thomas would've waited for Shields to make a reply before intervening.
Unlike the former commissioner,Forbes(who was forced to acknowledge the truth), Thomas is an admirer of Adams, and Shields is in that regard an outsider.
In Adams' mind, he thinks the ill-advised rush to judgment will somehow discredit Shields assertions that Adams and his CMU(disbanded) ran amok..
For the, at best, 35% of Jakans(65% supposedly in support of Adams) Mr. Shields is at this time more important than both players(Adams and Thomas).........
It is the old boys policy they want to protect.


Blessed