Jamaica missing out on specialised crimefighting training

MIAMI, FLORIDA:

While several police forces within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have engaged the services of the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office for specialised training as other countries in the Western Hemisphere have received, Jamaica has not.

During a visit to the campus of the Sheriff’s Office’s International Training Unit on Monday, an official of the Miami-Dade Public Safety Training Institute said the last real engagement the institute had with Jamaica was to assist with probing cold cases.

The official acknowledged that the training is expensive, suggesting that that was, perhaps, why Jamaica, unlike other small states, has not yet logged on to the programme.

The Gleaner is part of a contingent of international journalists who, this week, toured Miami, Florida, and Kansas City in Kansas on a Foreign Press Center reporting tour organised by the Meridian International Center and the US Department of State.

The theme of the tour is ‘Countering Transnational Criminal Organisations’.

Sergeant Oscar Pla said countries like Haiti and Guyana have reportedly benefited from the training offered by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and Miami-Dade Public Safety Training Institute.

According to officials at the training institute, individuals from Haiti who were trained are those currently holding off gangs in the turmoil unfolding in that Caribbean territory.

Last week, a near four-hour standoff between the security forces and the now deceased Dave ‘Brown Man’ Wilson in Mandeville, Manchester, led to calls for better training for police personnel to better equip them to manage such incidents.

Stakeholders have argued that such training is significant and could prevent situations similar to that which took place along Caledonia Road in the parish.

The threat was neutralised after the arrival of reinforcements from the SWAT team in Kingston.

“We have not trained Jamaica, but they have a police adviser that is here currently that I have worked with all the way back from when the programme started in Haiti in 2013,” said Pla. “We are in communication regarding some possible training, but again, we don’t choose, we don’t pick [which countries take part].”

Pla said he knows that Jamaica has a relationship with the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, located two counties north of Miami-Dade.

OPENNESS TO TRAINING

“We don’t select, we just say ‘yes’, and it’s always gonna be [that way]. As long as I have my major’s support, and my command staff’s support, we are always gonna say yes,” Pla said of the training institute’s openness to training.

The training ranges from tactical to community policing to professionalism.

According to Pla, there have been improved results in countries where training has been done.

Countries like Bosnia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Haiti, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, and Mexico have enrolled for varying training exercises.

“They could do hostage-rescue scenarios, building-searches scenarios, any of that stuff. Perimeters, exterior tactics, bounty to move from one position to the next, this is what this [International Training Unit] compound is for,” Pla said.

The unit has a designated classroom for INL students, and at the end of each successful training programme, that country would leave a plaque on the wall to pay homage.

According to Pla, officers in small-island states do well with the resources they have and conduct themselves in a professional manner.

“Our mission is to raise that professional level to bridge the gap between the police and the community, and we are starting to see the trust in police a lot more. But what we do see is lack of resources, unfortunately,” Pla noted.

He referenced Haiti as he said a lack of resources means police personnel from some countries do not have the tools and vehicles necessary to do their jobs.

“The first time we travelled to the country, the trust in police was very, very low, and we worked with them with community police and bike patrols. The next year we went, we saw the trust in the police significantly [improved]. We saw the community engage the police. In fact, when we were in Antigua, one of the citizens reported a crime as it was occurring. That is something you wouldn’t see before because [previously], they wouldn’t report the crimes,” Pla said.

He also recognised how training has helped Guyana.

WORK WITH GUYANESE POLICE FORCE

“I just got back from Guyana. They were getting ready for their presidential elections on September 1. We worked with the Guyana police force on anti-riot and civil disorder and riot control. We stressed the discipline component, the professionalism, the de-escalation component of it, and we received a very nice email from the US ambassador to Guyana saying that for the first time in the country’s history, there was an election with no problems, no issues, and the professionalism of the officers was phenomenal,” Pla said.

He stressed that when a community starts to see the professionalism in their police instead of corruption and human rights violations, they will come around.

Jamaica has had a history of concerns about law-enforcement personnel using excessive force and a lack of transparency during targeted operations.

On Monday, a man was shot and killed in Nannyville, and his mother has since claimed police brutally.

On Wednesday, another man was fatally shot by the police in Park Lane, St Andrew.

Residents there alleged that he was killed in cold blood.

None of these planned police operations was captured on body-worn cameras (BWC), and the Independent Commission of Investigations has said none of the 214 fatal shootings involving the security forces, as at September 4, were recorded on BWCs.

Pla said that body-worn cameras is an essential tool today.

“Many times in the media you see the reactive side, but you don’t get to see what led up to the incident. It’s a checks-and-balances tool for both law enforcement and for the community. I strongly suggest that every police department and officers should have a body-worn camera. It keeps officers in line, and it tells the whole story when the officer is portrayed by the media and others in a certain way,” Pla said.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com