Policing Styles in the Commonwealth Caribbean: The Jamaican Case

• Author: Anthony D. Harriott
• Pages: 284-300

284

CRIME, DELINQUENCY AND JUSTICE

INTRODUCTION

In this article, the nature of the style of the

Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), its

structural underpinning, its impact on

police-citizen relations and on the

effectiveness of the JCF are analysed. By

mapping this little studied area of police-

citizen relations in the Caribbean, the study

perhaps contributes to building a case for

police reform. Such work hardly needs

justification. The literature on policing in the

Caribbean is very limited. In these works,

the discussion centres on the abuse of power

by the police, particularly the excessive use

of lethal violence (c.f. Chevagny 1995,

Bennett 1997). This theme of police

repression is also explored by Danns (1982),

but as part of a broader discourse on the

character of the Guyanese state in which he

examines aspects of the style of the Guyana

Police Force. However, this author remains

unaware of any work specifically devoted to

examining the styles of the police forces of

the Caribbean.

Here it is argued that the style of the JCF

— which emphasises State protection over

citizen protection, order maintenance over

crime control and ‘crime-fighting’ over

respect for citizens’ rights — is both an

adaptation to, and source of, its legitimacy

deficit and is cultivated by structures of

power originating in the colonial period, that

treat the policed like subjects rather than

citizens. This style reflects a power imbalance

between police and citizen that is not

Policing Styles

in the

Commonwealth

Caribbean:

The Jamaican Case1

Anthony Harriott

Thirteen

285

POLICING STYLES IN THE COMMONWEALTH CARIBBEAN

consistent with a democratic ethos. More effective crime control and democratic

stability requires a redefinition of police-citizen relations, a prerequisite of which

is a more service-oriented style of police work.

The data for this study was collected over a two year period as part of a wider

study of the recent efforts (1994–present) to reform the JCF. A probability survey

of the opinions of the 1,036 members (19 per cent) of the Force — designed

among other things, to capture the fundamentals of their political values and

attitudes to the existing style of policing and possible alternate styles. Although

much of this data is not reported here, it certainly informs the analysis. In addition,

it draws on a number of in-depth interviews with senior officers and official

documentation which are particularly useful as they were not written with the

gloss that is usually put on documents intended for public perusal. For the

remainder of the article, first the concept of style is explicated, then the essential

features of the style of the JCF are identified and analysed by an examination of

one of the core activities of the police — its special anti-crime operations.

Wilson (1968, Varieties of Police Behaviour, Cambridge: Harvard University Press)

identified three styles of policing — the legalistic, service, and watchman, each

being associated with the three types of police-citizen encounters, that is, law

enforcement, service situations and order maintenance respectively. Elements of

each style may coexist in particular police forces but the defining style can be

identified by the predominant type of encounter. The legalistic style adopts a

narrow law enforcement perspective on the varied problems of crime control and

public order. While this approach is clearly inadequate for dealing with the

organisationally more sophisticated and socially embedded criminal networks of

today, ideally it equalises the treatment of all.2 The service style purports to treat

all citizens and types of demands seriously if not equally. It is more given to

problem-solving, and thus tends to encourage the exploration of wider options

(beyond reactive law enforcement) and the adoption of more inclusionary

problem-solving methodologies (involving non-police agencies and local stake-

holders). It best facilitates the fashioning of community and offence specific

solutions. With the watchman style, order maintenance is central and prior to

crime management. Watchman type police forces tend to be highly politicised,

sensitive to the locus of social power, biased against the least powerful social

groups (both in the treatment of their demands for police services and in the

character of police-citizen interaction) and closed and evasive of public

accountability. Their operating norms are characterised by ritualised

unresponsiveness to the public, work avoidance and the tolerance of many types

of legal infractions. This is usually coupled with a high degree of aggressiveness

or ‘hard policing’ which forms part of the police routine designed to demonstrate

control and may be intensified in the form of campaigns whenever this control

appears to be weakening.

Individual and institutional styles tend to be highly congruent. The individual