The ISCF members, Woman Special Constable Keisha Steele, Special Constable Owen Brown and Special Sergeant Ian Young, were charged by members of the Anti-Corruption Branch, and taken before the Yallahs Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

According to reports, the policemen and policewoman solicited money from a vendor, after they had seized a quantity of illegal DVDs that he was found selling in Morant Bay, St Thomas. The vendor reported the matter to the Anti-Corruption Branch and, following investigations, the three were held during a sting operation. The woman special constable was remanded, while the two men were offered bail in the sum of $500,000 each. As a condition of their bail, Brown and Young were ordered to surrender their travel documents, and to report to a police station once per week. A stop order was also placed on the two at the island’s ports. They are scheduled to return to court on February 18.

In the meantime, a constable was arrested by members of the Anti-Corruption Branch last week Wednesday (February 3) on reasonable suspicion of breaching the Corruption Prevention Act. It is alleged that on Saturday, January 30, the constable apprehended a watch vendor and accused him of buying and selling gold. The policeman then allegedly demanded and accepted $10,000 from the vendor in order for him to not be prosecuted. The matter was reported to the Anti-Corruption Branch and the constable arrested. He’s currently in police custody awaiting an identification parade.

The Island Constabulary Force (ISCF) special corporal was held after he allegedly attempted to collect money from someone. His name is being withheld by investigators, who have also declined to give details of the circumstances leading to his arrest.

The constable attached to the Linstead police station was allegedly caught collecting $10,000 from a motorist.

The press conference comes hot on the heels of recent revelations that two policemen who were arrested in Clarendon recently, were likely actively involved in criminal gangs.

Some quotes from Acting Commissioner Ellington at yesterday’s press conference:

“I am deeply concerned at what appears to be an escalation in the activities or participation by members of the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) in criminal gangs as well as consorting with known criminal elements. “I am therefore issuing the warning to all members to stop associating themselves with criminals and criminal gangs.”

“As long as I am in charge, I will use every lawful means at my disposal to find those individuals and to get rid of them from the Jamaica Constabulary Force on the ground that they have lost my confidence as the police commissioner and they have lost the moral authority to continue serving the public.”

“We in the Police High Command will make no distinction between police personnel involved in criminal activities and civilians involved in criminal activities.”

“When policemen carry on their wrongdoing, they put the lives of their colleagues at risk and the lives of their families and friends also at risk.“

“This week when Assistant Commissioner Les Green said that a number of the policemen killed ‘in the line of duty’ were involved in acts of criminality, it set off a firestorm of controversy that in my opinion was not unjustified.

I am not totally convinced that in real terms most of the policemen killed were involved with criminals, but Les Green doesn’t strike me as someone who speaks loosely on these issues. What I have a bigger issue with is Sergeant Raymond Wilson, chairman of the Jamaica Police Federation, calling for Green’s resignation if he is unable to support his statements with fact,” … see the rest of his column here.

Pusey made the statement when responding to a question about police abuse, and said further that the matter of corruption in the constabulary was of “grave concern“, noting that “the police officer is the divide between us and criminals“.

This is not the first time that the correlation between low pay and corruption has been made with regard to Jamaica’s police. The Government is currently in an on-going ‘battle’ with members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) over a promised pay increase. The ISCF has actually filed suit to force the Government to honor a previously agreed wage increase.

If they do not respond within the time frame, then, on the recommendation of the commissioner of police – Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin – they will have to take the option of retiring in the public interest. All eight were attached to the Mt. Salem Police Station in Montego Bay, and are part of a group of 18 men and women who were interdicted for what the Police High Command said was their alleged criminal and illegal activities in the parish.

The policemen are reportedly fighting this one to the end, and plan to engage the services of a lawyer, and have also taken their complaints to the Jamaica Police Federation (which will be reviewing the dismissals).