JFJ concerned about reports of cops in masks

There is an urgent call for the High Command of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to investigate increased reports of police personnel wearing masks and hiding their badge numbers while carrying out certain operations.

Human rights lobby group Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ) is raising alarm about the practice.

Dr Carolyn Gomes, JFJ Executive Director, says more reports are coming in that members of the JCF are concealing their identities.

It is believed that this is aimed that preventing witnesses from identifying them.

"I want to know what Force Order has been given to allow them to do this. They have been covering their numbers for a number of years but now it seems to be a practice to go out there with their faces covered. The Force Orders say police officers are supposed to be identifiable … they are not the army," Dr. Gomes said Tuesday afternoon while speaking on RJR's daily current affairs discussion programme Beyond the Headlines.

The call follows last week's police shooting of Alfred Hill, 47, a guest house and boat operator from Norman Manley Boulevard in Negril, Westmoreland.

Residents claim the policemen who shot him wore masks and acted unlawfully.

The shooting is being probed by the Bureau of Special Investigations.   

INDECOM needs to ensure protocol is followed in police killings

Meanwhile, Dr. Gomes is making an appeal to the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) to ensure that the police follow established principles whenever there is a fatal shooting involving agents of the State.

Under the Independent Commission of Investigations Act, the police are mandated to preserve evidence so that INDECOM can properly carry out investigations.

However, Dr. Gomes says this is not being done.

"(We are) insisting that every fatal police shooting is followed up with a phone call to INDECOM to ask what to do about the incident scene. The police are supposed to know who is on an operation, when a call is made for back up and makes who calls. There must be a record there, they must file a report," she said.