The Editor, Sir:

Commissioner of Police Hardley Lewin, at his press conference on January 13, challenged a member of the public to speak to human rights bodies to find out if numbers of extrajudicial killings by the police were increasing, decreasing, or remaining the same.

The figures, provided to me by the Bureau of Special Investigation, show the rates of police killings continue to raise serious question:

The figures more than doubled from 2003 to 2007, when the police killed the largest number of civilians in about 20 years. Jamaica's rate of extrajudicial killings (even at 225, down from 272 in 2007) places us in the company of countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, and the Philippines.

Jamaica continues to have serious problems with respect for human life when:

A. The security forces kill an average of 19 civi-lians per month in 2008, even if that figure is less than the 23 extrajudicial killings per month in 2007.

B. The commissioner expresses regret about the killing or injuring of infants, without assuring the public (by action) that existing policies are being enforced no matter the age and gender of the person 'accidentally' shot. The commissioner needs to tell the public what steps he has put in place between the killing of an 11-month-old in March 2008, and the injuring of 10-month-old baby in January 2009, to ensure that police adhere to Paragraph 103 of the Human Rights and Police Use of Force and Firearms Policy of the Jamaica Constabulary Force:

"Firearms will not be discharged at a vehicle, simply because it has failed to stop at a road check or to immobilise the vehicle."

C. Police accounts of shoot-outs have been unchanged for at least the past decade, with no sign of variation since this commissioner has been in office.

Greater casualties

Now, the commissioner should raise questions about almost 1,000 instances since 2003 in which police claimed to be 'fired on first', killing the alleged attacker(s) and rarely sustaining a casualty.

I think the commissioner could increase public confidence in the police by appearing more intent in holding himself accountable for the rates of police killings.

I am, etc.,

YVONNE MCCALLA SOBERS

sobersy@yahoo.com

Families Against State Terrorism