Bunting: PNP has no plans to remove Commish

Opposition Spokesperson on Security Peter Bunting is dismissing claims he said are coming from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) camp that a future People’s National Party (PNP) Government would end the contract of the current police commissioner.

“That is a lie from the pit of hell,” said Bunting at a PNP parish meeting in Porus, Manchester, on Wednesday.

He said that from as far back as the 1990s, when attorney-at-law K.D. Knight was national security minister, operation and policy concerning the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) were separated.

He said because of this separation, the minister of national security does not direct the operations of the JCF.

Further, he said that within the Jamaican Constitution is the Police Services Commission, which is responsible for selecting, appointing, and promoting senior police officers.

Bunting said that more importantly than those two points, Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake is operating on policies, he said, that were advocated for by the PNP.

Blake, who was appointed to the post in March 2024, has been lauded for his transformation of the JCF and its image and the significant lowering of the murder rate.

As of August 9, the JCF reported that 415 murders had been committed since the start of the year, representing a 42 per cent decline in murders year-on-year.

At a similar time last year, 297 more people had been murdered.

“So why would we want to replace somebody who is following our policy? We were always against the unconstitutional and ineffective states of emergency. And it is only since this commissioner has come to office and stopped that foolishness because we challenged it in the courts, the PNP and others, and we would support the extension in the Senate that, that wasteful exercise has stopped,” said Bunting.

“It is since then, and we are grateful that we see the murder rate coming down,” he noted, adding that this could have happened 10 years ago and prevented the loss of thousands of lives.

Still, Blake has been heavily criticised over his failure to implement the use of body-worn cameras, an accountability mechanism human-rights groups and the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) have said is critical but missing.

Concerns have also been raised about the extrajudicial killings of people alleged to have engaged in confrontation with the police.

In July, INDECOM said there continued to be a rise in fatal shootings by the security forces, in particular fatalities arising from planned police operations, as well as the persistent failure to prioritise the deployment of body-worn cameras in any planned operations.

The commission said there have been 11 fatal shootings by the security forces since the start of August and 201 year-to-date.

A total of 41 officers have been charged between 2024 and 2025 following investigations.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com