Contract Signing of St Catherine Divisional Headquarters
Main Address
By
The Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP
Prime Minister of Jamaica
At the
Contract Signing of St Catherine Divisional Headquarters
On
July 23, 2024
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Thank you very much, Superintendent Lindsay, for your mastery of the ceremony.
Allow me to acknowledge the Honourable Minister of National Security
And the Honourable Minister of Gender, Entertainment, Culture and Sports who is the Member of Parliament for the area that will largely benefit from this police station.
The Honourable Juliet Cuthbert Flynn, who is the Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security.
Ambassador Alison Stone Roofe, our Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security.
Dr Kevin Blake, our Commissioner of Police
Mr Peter Melhado, Chairman of the West Indies Home Contractors Limited and other members of the WIHCON team.
Other specially invited guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is indeed a good morning for Jamaica.
Today marks a significant step in our ongoing journey toward a safer, more secure Jamaica and as we gather to sign this contract we also bear in mind that there are several other projects of this nature, of this magnitude which we have already signed contracts for, we are out of ground and there are several other projects to come. It may be a question in the minds of some, why are we then making a ceremony of a contract signing when we are certain that we will also make a ceremony of the groundbreaking. And yes, we will make a ceremony of the opening.
It’s important because either deliberately or just by lack of knowledge, there would seem to be a disconnection between projects that are developed, projects that are implemented, projects that are completed, projects that are beneficial to the country and the acts of the government. In other words, when the government does something good, there is no credit.
In fact, sometimes we see even articles written to dissociate the act of the government in developing the policy, making the allocation, carrying it through the administrative process, and having it finally executed. So, these wonderful police stations that are being built right across Jamaica somehow has just miraculously happened without government. It didn’t happen before with government, but it has happened with this government and so it is important for government to inform the public of its activities and one of the ways in which it does this is by having ceremonies.
Now, we can’t spend all of our time in ceremony. We have to be quick about it. We mark the moment and move on because a successful government marks a series of successful moments that accumulates to form the successful government. So, I could go on and list all that we have done in terms of changing the face and nature of the JCF and I’m certain that every Jamaican will appreciate that the JCF of today is not the same as the JCF of ten years ago.
The first time that there was ever any consideration of law enforcement in Jamaica was in 1716, where night watchmen were appointed to keep guard in Port Royal, of all places. Then in 1832, they started to have a formal establishment of a police force, but it wasn’t a national police force. And then in 1867, the JCF was established as a national constabulary. The JCF is probably one of the oldest unbroken institutions in the country. It is an institution that we must be proud of.
Granted, there is a school of thought which says that the JCF as a national constabulary was born out of a reaction to the 1865 rebellion led by our national hero, Paul Bogle and in a sense, it was established to protect the colonial status quo. That may very well be so, but we all must acknowledge that no society can grow and prosper without established law and order and the JCF is the first in the world and the last bulwark in ensuring the rule of law and public order in Jamaica.
There will always be questions about the social context in which the JCF operates. There will always be questions about the fairness, the respect for human rights, the application of the best practices and these are legitimate questions, but it doesn’t mean that we must dismiss the JCF because without the JCF you’re looking at chaos. So, what we must all do as citizens of Jamaica is invest in the JCF. The men and women of the JCF were not imported. They were not recruited from abroad. They are from your communities. They go to your churches; you heard the prayer? They tell and share our stories and every day they put their lives on the line for your safety and security. And at this moment, I take the opportunity to offer my deep and sincere condolences to the officer who lost his life in a really bizarre incident at the Half Way Tree police station.
The JCF is our police force and that is where the government policy started. When we took office in 2016, massive debate about security and what we need to do with the police force, we had gone through at least two decades of trying to transform the police force. There have been several modalities of transformation schemes and strategies for transformation to include the importation of officers to have a demonstration effect on the leadership of the police force to trying to get the police force to do more community policing. There are all kinds of strategies that have been employed to transform the JCF. Some have worked, some have not and what we decided to do is not to go and reinvent the wheel.
We saw what the challenges were. The first challenge was that you could not place the entirety of national security wholly and solely on the JCF’s shoulder. You had to have a broader plan and we develop Plan Secure Jamaica, of which the JCF plays a very important role. We looked at security in a global context for Jamaica. I’ll explain this to you in a way that you can understand immediately.
Ever so often you will see videos of policemen in our urban centres trying to enforce public order whether it is with taxi men or vending and they get into confrontation with people who are not properly parked, with people who are vending on the streets. Battens are drawn, guns are drawn, fights happen, and there have been, unfortunately, injuries and deaths but think of it, is the problem a security problem or an urban planning problem? Are we asking the police to police a poorly planned urban space? The police get a lot of blame for a lot of things, but the problem has to be looked at from a broader perspective.
So, we developed Plan Secure Jamaica, which includes how do we build proper urban spaces that have designated parking, designated places for vending, designated places, proper spaces for pedestrian activity; we need properly built townships and we have started that. It’s not going to be an overnight transformation. It takes time to plan out a city or a town and build it out but just look at what is happening in Morant Bay. You’re going to have the first purpose built urban centre. I haven’t done the full research on it to see which town was actually purpose built in Jamaica. Maybe there was, and I will report at another event what my research shows. I mean, yes, there have been Black River. You could say Spanish Town, even parts of Negril, parts of Ocho Rios, but in recent times, where you’ve just built a town, and this is the town where your commercial activity and your domestic and other activities will take place. That is going to assist, when we replicate this right across Jamaica in how citizens relate with the police. It will assist with the security issue.
We developed Plan Secure Jamaica to look at all elements of the security issue. Another part of the problem is the whole business of violence. Now, we have something called in Jamaica, organized violence. Listen, you can have organized crime and there is no violence. Our organized criminals choose to use violence, even when it is not necessary and so you can’t just merely say the response of the police breaches human rights and criticize the police in unfair and unjust ways.
And I am not here saying that the police does not have a higher duty to maintain and protect human rights. What I’m saying is that we have a deeper problem of organized violence and even domestic unorganized violence in the society. We have a violence problem, so the solution is not just in the JCF, the solution is what are we doing in our schools? What are we doing in the justice system to promote conflict resolution and mediation, and all of those are things that we are currently doing. But what are we doing, again, with the legal system to target gangs that produce violence? And we have been doing that. So, the strategy is a comprehensive, a very broad strategy but let’s look at the JCF itself.
If you’re going to build an institution, the first place you want to start is with the leadership. You have to develop a doctrine, a culture, and since 2016 we have done, I would say, a spectacular job in transforming the culture and doctrine and leadership of the JCF. Without question, the officer corps of the JCF stands head and shoulder and several inches above the rest in the region; no question. When you look at the talent pool that exists in the JCF across several fields, it is amazing. And that core of leadership will permeate through the organization to the rank and file. It is going to take time.
I’m not here telling you that every single officer you meet is imbued with this sense of leadership and responsibility and is a defender of the highest integrity of the organization. There are some people in the JCF who should not be there, but I’m certain that the leadership is working through a process to filter them out and to bring in persons who fit and match the organizational ideology and doctrine. And that is what we are doing in the recruitment process and every month, the country may not know this, and I probably should say it, every month I get a report on the recruitment process. I don’t get it from the commissioner. I get a report from MOCA on the filtering process of the technology that is used in lie detector, but the appropriate term polygraphy; that all of the people who join the force and who are promoted go through an intensive process of polygraphy.
And as I’m speaking on that, Minister, I should also explain to the country that we have established to monitor this broad approach to national security a National Security Council with an office of the National Security Council, which we will shortly present a National Security Act and that looks at security from a comprehensive point of view. So, we look at security from customs. We look at security from the anti-corruption perspective. We look at security from cyber. We look at security from telecommunications. We look at security from finance; all elements that could threaten the safety and security of the state and we meet every month, and we go through it and that is how we manage Plan Secure Jamaica.
Now, we can always talk about good policies and what I’ve been talking about here is policy; what are some of the policy changes that we have made. For example, we’ve taken a policy decision that if we’re going to improve the organization, we have to also improve the spaces in which our police officers work, but more importantly, the spaces in which the public comes to interact with the police. And we have made some significant investments in spaces. We have taken policy decisions about increasing and improving the JCF’s access to technology; never before done. We have taken decisions about the mobility of the JCF and of course, we have taken decisions about how the JCF looks, how they present themselves to the public; the uniforms look sharp.
So, from 2016 to present, we have spent some serious funds. I mean, I’m seeing here that on vehicles we have gone 4.87 billion dollars. I just wanted to go back and check, and even if you were to correct it for inflation, no other government has spent that much on mobility but yet there are still police stations when I visit, they say, “Boss, you can’t tell them to send up a car.” We’re still not where we should be. We’re a significant way, but not where we should be yet and that is because for the last 30 years, there has been significant disinvestment meaning that the equipment that you have had, we are replacing it at a far slower and lower quality than what you had before so the accumulation of your capital stock is not keeping pace with the demands that is required of you; that’s disinvestment.
And why disinvestment? I’m not going to go into that, the politics and the economy and so forth which the people need to pay attention to because somehow there’s a disconnect. They believe that the economy doesn’t tie into the progress of the society and the ability to deliver the things you need; this big disconnect, which is why I’m making this presentation ministers so that people make the connection that you need good government to run a good economy to be able to deliver the things that empower you to do your job. So, in the next three years, we are projected to spend 8.7 billion dollars on the capital accumulation of vehicles for your mobility.
In terms of the renovation of stations, just minor repairs and so forth, from 2016 to now, we have spent 2.7 billion dollars, and we expect to spend another 2.7 billion dollars on renovations. But on capital, meaning on new stations, new constructions, construction projects, we spent 5.52 billion dollars on building new stations and I’ve gone around the country and seen some. We have built new stations in Portland. We’re doing one now in West Rural; all over we’re building new stations, but we expect to spend 19.7 billion dollars in the next three years on new stations. Of course, that figure is huge because that 19.7 billion dollars would include the massive station in Westmoreland, this one, and specialized ops, the C5 centre, which I’ll speak about a little bit; all kinds of new exciting things. If you think that the police force has transformed now, wait until you see it in the next three years.
On technology, we have spent 3.9 billion dollars from 2016 to now, and in the next three years we will spend 10.9 billion dollars on technology. So, in all, from 2016 we have spent 14.4 billion dollars on your capital side of your budget. This is not what we spend on national security as a global consideration, just what we have spent on the JCF, and it is still not enough and that is because of the years of disinvestment. So, when a prayer is sent up for a building for the Federation, it’s under consideration. It’s something that, obviously, if we can do it within the capital constraints and the priorities that we set, it’s something that we would consider. So, the issue for us is how do we keep the economy growing so that we can get the capital budget without borrowing and then put that capital budget into a process that moves very quickly, that ensures accountability, eliminates any hint of corruption, and delivers something that is sustainable and transformational.
In the next three years, we will spend 39.3 billion dollars on the capital budget of the JCF to improve the JCF. So, we have covered leadership, we have covered the equipment and the capital, and of course now, we depend on the JCF now for practice. What are the systems that you’re going to put in place? And I urge the JCF, that as we are making the investment in the capital, we’re giving the strategic leadership, we cannot interfere in the JCF’s operational duties. Tactics and operations, that is your commissioner’s domain. We give guiding policy. We bring to them the concerns of the people but at the end of the day, you have to take the resources that we give you and use them wisely. So we don’t dictate to the police where a car must go so even when they come to me and say this police station don’t have, I say alright, let me ask the Commissioner, but I can’t pick up the phone as many people think or rather let me put it this way, I don’t pick up the phone and give instructions. I don’t pick up the phone when a policeman would come to me and say ‘promotion’ because those are operational matters. And if you really want the police force to grow and shine and become the force that we are all proud of, these established rules that divide the labour and divide the effort for proper working, then we must observe them and so those are well observed by me and my administration.
So, yes, there are concerns that have been raised about the policy as to how persons are promoted and so forth, what we stress is transparency and efforts must be rewarded. Our police officers must get exposure to training that would put them in line for promotion. We believe in a merit-based system, those are the policy directions that we give. And from so far, what I have seen is that that is what is being executed as a general policy, but we can’t get involved in the operational stuff. And we have every confidence in the commissioner that he will lead the force to ensure that there is a high level of motivation.
A couple things in closing, I am from Spanish Town. I was born in Spanish Town. I love Spanish Town. It is a place of such great history and potential. It pains my heart to see the buildings deteriorating and the Georgian buildings just disappearing. So much history and culture there that could be made of value but the town historically for a long time has been overrun taken over by criminal gangs that are really strangling the town for its true potential. For us to take back the town, the JCF will be an important element of that strategy, but it is not the criminals that we need to get out of the town. More so, it is the people we need to get on the side of the police because the criminals have interwoven themselves into the fabric that they have protection and safe haven but if we can get the people there to see that the police will guarantee their safety and their security, that the police is their friend, that the police will create an environment where everybody can thrive, then that fabric will unravel and the gangs won’t feel safe there so we have to build the relationship with the community and the first thing you want to do is to provide the people with the necessary public services so that they feel a part of the state. And that is why we have made this massive investment in literally building a new Spanish Town Hospital. I mean, we’re putting up a new wing, but it’s literally almost a new hospital being built then, we’re going to do the police station.
We have some investments to make in some roadways there including the approach to Spanish Town. We have to figure out how we’re going to change that small bridge that has been there for such a long time. There are some communities there which are very old communities, I can call Hampton Green, Ensom City, all of these areas where the infrastructure is deteriorating that we need to intervene for their roads and their water so there is a plan about how we’re going to take back Spanish Town and there is an important security element to the plan.
Now, as we are talking about this, others are seeing it and so there are persons who are making investments in Spanish Town quietly. They are buying up land, they are doing developments because they see. The general public may not see it, but the investors who have a keen eye see what is going to happen to Spanish Town. There are 520,000 persons live in St Catharine; that’s the second largest concentration of the population so even if we were to get a 20 percent reduction in murders and we sustain that for the next five years and we eliminated the gang, you would see Spanish Town go through a growth phase that previously you would consider unimaginable and that is what we’re going to do. Strategically, we’re going to retake Spanish Town from the criminals.
I want to commend the police for the work that they have been doing. They have taken out one character called Devil. I don’t know how somebody could, and I know that they have others that they are on the radar that they are working on. My advice to the criminals just leave. Just put on your gun and leave because the police is going to get you one by one, two by two, and I’m certain you’re going to hear four and five and you’re doing it in a way that is lawful, protecting the innocent whilst ensuring that we bring those persons who are breaking the law, those persons who are organizing violence, we bring them before the courts. So, with those words and my comments, it gives me a great pleasure to participate in the contract signing which is the first important stage in the actual construction. In another couple of weeks, I’m sure, Minister Chang will organize the groundbreaking where I will have another similar presentation to make.
God bless you and thank you.