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KINGSTON, Jamaica CMC – The Jamaica government Tuesday announced it had approved a merger of the island’s police forces resulting in the number of police officials engaged in frontline crime prevention and control.
National Security Minister Peter Bunting says the Portia Simpson Miller administration had agreed to the merger of the Jamaica Constabulary force (JCF) and the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF).
Bunting said that the merger, which comes into effect during the 2014-15 financial year, means Jamaica will have a single police force which will, among other things, result in an increase in the number of police personnel engaged in frontline crime prevention and control activities.
He said the merger had been among the recommendations of the 1991 Wolfe Report as well as five separate reports and studies.
Police Commissioner Owen Ellington said that the two entities have been operating together as a virtual single force in recent times, but the realisation of all benefits required policy and legislative support.
He said the existence of two separate legal entities, performing similar and in some cases identical, functions presented a number of operational challenges.
Commissioner Ellington argued that the merging of the entities will result in significant efficiency gains including the implementation of a single command and communication structure; elimination of duplication in administrative services as well as the expansion in the skill sets of police personnel through the unification of training programmes.
It would also result in the rationalization of various overheads such as rental of property, and the creation of the means by which the transmission and inculcation of a core set of common values can be effected.
Bunting Tuesday met with representatives of the police associations, the JCF and ISCF senior management, and senior policy managers of the MNS to discuss the new initiative.
