Ryon Jones, Staff Reporter From Jamaica Gleaner

Despite having taken an oath to serve, protect and reassure the people of Jamaica, many members of the police force seem ready to head elsewhere at the drop of a hat.

That was underscored recently when just over 1,400 experienced members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) sought to arrest a handful of vacancies in the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS).

“Fifteen vacancies were advertised on February 14, with the closing date being March 14, 2014, and above 1,400 Jamaican police officers applied,” Raymond Christian, information manager of the RCIPS, told The Sunday Gleaner.

“We got responses from Jamaica, Barbados, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Anguilla. But Jamaica was the largest of them all. Probably about 90 per cent of the applicants were Jamaicans,” he said.

The advertisement was for experienced constables to work in the uniform, firearm, criminal investigations, and financial crime units of the RCIPS

It is not yet known if any of the applicants from Jamaica will be selected to fill the vacancies, as the process is not yet complete.

SEEKING EXPERIENCED OFFICERS

“The applications have to be vetted, so what will happen is that they will be shortlisted and then those shortlisted will be notified,” said Christian, as he noted that the Cayman Islands is not looking for recruits to be trained, but experienced police crime fighters.

This is not the first time Jamaican cops have attempted to head to the Cayman Islands in droves. In 2012, just under 40 members of the force successfully applied for positions in the RCIPS.

But that is no surprise for the chairman of the Jamaica Police Federation, Sergeant Raymond Wilson, who told The Sunday Gleaner that the cops make an economic decision when they decide to head to Cayman and other countries which attempt to recruit Jamaican police.

“It is a known fact that the Royal Cayman Police offer much better salaries and benefits when compared to what our employer here in Jamaica currently offers our local police,” said Wilson.

“It is, therefore, not surprising that so many applications were received by them from our local police officers. We are in 2014, and the rank-and-file members of the JCF have not received an increase in pay since 2009.

“Irrespective of our commitment and loyalty to the JCF – and indeed we are – we must survive. Our families must be taken care of and our current salaries are grossly inadequate to meet and honour our very basic commitments.”

HUGE DIFFERENCE IN SALARIES

The basic salary annual salary for constables serving in the RCIPS ranges between CI$31,272 (J$4,199,892.95) and CI$42,096 (J$5,653, 578.43) with officers working in the criminal investigation department pocketing even more after plain-clothes and detective allowances are added.

Jamaican constables are paid, on average, less than J$2,000,000 per year.

“We are fully aware and are equally sensitive to the situation affecting our country, but our salaries have been further and constantly eroded by the almost monthly increases in basic commodities such food, access to health care and medicine, petrol and other transportation-related cost to commute to and from work, utilities, and other basic but critical things that we depend on daily,” said Wilson.

“We have found that the average rank and file spends more than 35 per cent of his/her meagre salary to keep himself/herself on the job. For example, nothing is subsidised for the police. Meals are at full cost as against subsidies or meal allowances that are afforded to other public-sector groups.

“We are required to find your way to and from work at full expense to the police officer, and one would only be in luck if a service unit or a colleague is going in a direction to give a lift,” added Wilson, as he focused on the economics and stayed away from other factors reportedly causing the cops to look elsewhere.

“The pay is not the worst; it is not just the pay,” said one cop, who has been a member of the force for the past 12 years. “The police are depressed as the force is not transparent,” he added, pointing to the system of promotion.

“It is not based on merit alone. A man has to be involved with somebody for them to excel, or you have to be friends with or related to somebody. That is why the police don’t have the zeal to come out and do what he has to do, because he will do what he is to do and he still gets left behind.”

Another cop based in rural Jamaica stated that if employment was not so hard to come by, he would not hesitate to move to another job, even if it means less pay.

“More than half of the force is demotivated,” the lawman said. “Right now, if some police could find a work where they are getting even less than what they are getting now, they would leave, because a lot of police don’t like the system.”

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