This article'slead sectionmay be too short to adequatelysummarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead toprovide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(October 2017)
TheJamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is the nationalpolice force ofJamaica. Founded in 1867, during the period ofBritish colonialism, the JCF was intended as a civil body with a military structure. Since the late 1990s, the JCF has undergone modernisation.
The JCF was established with anInspector General as its head, with a Deputy Inspector General as his deputy, and a staff of inspectors and sub-inspectors. The Inspector General was empowered to recruit constables, who could then be promoted to Acting Corporal, Corporal, Sergeant, Sergeant Major, and Staff Sergeant Major.[3]
In 1932, the JCF had 123 police stations across the island.[3] In 1948, it was reported that the JCF was split into three branches: the Uniformed Branch,Water Police, andDetectives.[4]
In 1993, Trevor MacMillan was appointed as Commissioner of Police, the first outsider sinceindependence to lead the JCF. During his tenure, he attempted to enact reforms to move the JCF from a political to a professional force, but after failed negotiations around the degree of autonomy senior officers had from the political directorate, his contract was terminated in 1996.[5] In 1998, the JCF began a period of reform characterised as "police modernisation" but understood to involve the removal of colonial inheritances from the police.[6]
In 2024 the JCF, alongside the Jamaica Defence Force deployed personnel as part of the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti.[7]
The Jamaica Constabulary Force is led by a Commissioner of Police. The title changed from Inspector General of Police in 1939.[8] The JCF falls under the authority of theMinistry of National Security.[9]
In 2021, the Commissioner of Police, Antony Anderson, announced that the working uniform would be redesigned to accommodate equipment such asbody cameras.[31] Officers began being issued with the new uniforms in 2023.[32]
The Police Academy of Jamaica opened in 1983 at Twickenham Park,St. Catherine. It was based on the old campus of the Jamaica School of Agriculture.[33] The Police Academy was refurbished and reopened in 1997. In 2014, the National Police College of Jamaica was established following a merger of the Police Academy, the Jamaica Constabulary Staff College, the Caribbean Search Centre, the Firearm and Tactical Training Unit, and the Driving School, which all operated independently at Twickenham Park.[34]
JCF officers are equipped withbatons,pepper spray, andhandcuffs.[36][37] In September 2006, the government approved acontract get 600ballistic helmets, 1,500bullet proof vests, andriot shields for the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).[38] In 2013, the Jamaica Constabulary force received 20 motor vehicles, 500 ballistic vests, and 500 tactical uniforms from the United States government.[39] In September 2021,International Organization for Migration (IOM) and theEuropean Union (EU) donatedbinoculars,camcorders,night vision goggles, key chainvoice recorders, digital voice recorders, mini keychain video cameras, hidden camera glasses, and flexible waterprooftripods to JCF. In 2022, Jamaica Constabulary Force received threelaptop computers,cell phones, a printer, and printer cartridges from the IOM and EU to that was used to help combat human trafficking on the island.[40] In 2022, the JCF received video cameras, monitors and some software from thePan American Health Organization (PAHO) which was employed in the JCF’s ‘Enriching Your Health and Wellness’ initiative, that was run by the organization’s Medical Services Branch (MSB).[41] In 2023, the JCF received 3,000 e-ticket machines.[42]
The JCF has been accused of carrying outextrajudicial killings.[43] In 2003 the Crime Management Unit (CMU), headed by the controversial Reneto Adams, was disbanded following allegations that it was "Jamaica's version ofDirty Harry".[44]Mark Shields, then ofScotland Yard and later Deputy Police Commissioner of the JCF, was brought in from London to investigate; Adams was acquitted of shooting four people in an alleged extrajudicial execution.[45]
In a climate of gang warfare cops with a record of killing gangsters such as Keith "Trinity" Gardner (noted for shooting several members of the Stone Crusher gang[46]) and Cornwall "Bigga" Ford ([47] who was on the scene at the alleged killing of seven 15–20-year-old youths in Braeton in 2001) became folk heroes.[48] The police team was searching for suspects who had killed a teacher in cold blood, and a policeman a few months earlier.
Per capita killings by the JCF are among the highest in the world. With a population of less than three million, police killed 140 people each year in the 1990s[43]—five times the death rate in 1990s South Africa. Current rates may be as many as 300 per year.[49] This makes Jamaica's police force "among the deadliest in the world".[50]
On 31 July 2010, three policemen were arrested after they were filmed beating (and then shooting to death) an unarmed murder suspect, Ian Lloyd, in Buckfield, St. Ann; Lloyd was lying on the ground, writhing and apparently helpless. The footage was shown on TVJ television news 30 July 2010. Initial police reports were at variance with the actions shown in the amateur-video footage later released.[51] The officers involved in the killing were acquitted due to an inability to present the maker of the video for court to authenticate it for evidentiary purposes.
^McDavid, Hilton; Clayton, Antony; Cowell, Noel (2011). "The Difference between the Constabulary Force and the Military: An Analysis of the Differing Roles and Functions in the Context of the Current Security Environment in the Caribbean (The Case of Jamaica)".Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies.36 (3):40–71.
^abAdam, W. P. C. (1932). "The Jamaica Constabulary".The Police Journal: Theory, Practice, and Principles.5 (2):257–266.doi:10.1177/0032258X3200500209.
^Harriott, Antony (1997). "Reforming The Jamaica Constabulary Force: From Political To Professional Policing?".Caribbean Quarterly.43 (3):1–12.doi:10.1080/00086495.1997.11672098.
^Jamaica Constabulary Force "Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) Island wide Station and Cellphone Numbers" Jamaica Constabulary Force, Jamaica Constabulary Force,https://jcf.gov.jm/contact-2/, Date accessed: May 13, 2025
