JAMAICA: POLICE COMMISSIONER HARDLEY LEWIN RESIGNS

C O N F I D E N T I A L KINGSTON 000733 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CAR (JMACK-WLSON) (BALVARADO) (VDEPIRRO) (WSMITH) L/LEI (CHOLLAND) (AKLUESNER) INR/IAA (GBOHIGAN) JUSTICE FOR OIA (PPETTY) TREASURY FOR ERIN NEPHEW INR/RES (RWARNER) CENTRAL AMERICAN CARIBBEAN BASIN COLLECTIVE AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN PASS TO AMEMBASSY GRENADA E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/11/04 TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL ASEC SNAR KCOR KCRM JM XL SUBJECT: JAMAICA: POLICE COMMISSIONER HARDLEY LEWIN RESIGNS REF: A. KINGSTON 208; B. 08 KINGSTON 564 ¶C. DIA IMADS WASHINGTON DC 11023997; D. KINGSTON 697; E. KINGSTON 924 ¶F. 08 KINGSTON 564; G. KINGSTON 265; H. KINGSTON 914 CLASSIFIED BY: David Stone, CDA; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) Summary: -------------- ¶1. (U) Police Commissioner Hardley Lewin announced his resignation as head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) on November 1, putting to an end weeks of speculation and bringing to a close a tumultuous two-year tenure in which Lewin was unsuccessful in either reversing the island's spiraling crime rate or in winning the confidence of the JCF rank and file. Lewin, an outsider who retired from the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) as a Rear Admiral in 2007, had been under increasing pressure from Prime Minister (PM) Bruce Golding and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)-led Government of Jamaica (GOJ) for his failure to rein in police corruption and to bring the island's intractable murder rate under control. It is expected that Lewin's successor will be Acting Deputy Commissioner Owen Ellington. Two Commissioners In Two Years -------------- ¶2. (C) Rumors of Lewin's impending resignation had been rampant for months (Reftel A). Embassy sources report that Lewin had submitted his resignation to the Police Service Commission (PSC) on October 26 and that it was accepted on October 30. In his November 3 remarks to Parliament, the PM noted that Lewin's resignation letter was dated October 20. Lewin had planned to make a statement on November 6, but news of the resignation leaked when the PM announced it at a retreat for the governing Jamaica Labour Party on November 1. Despite media accounts that the resignation would take effect immediately, Embassy sources report that Lewin will remain in his position until November 6, and then will use vacation leave through the end of the calendar year. ¶3. (C) With Lewin's resignation, Jamaica now has had two JCF commissioners over the past two years as well as two National Security Ministers. An outsider who had tendered, and then withdrawn his resignation, back in June 2008 (Reftel B),Lewin had not been popular within the JCF, and his appointment had drawn protests from the Police Officers' Association and the Jamaica Police Federation. After almost two years in the job, Lewin had yet to make a serious dent in Jamaica's burgeoning crime wave - the island has had over 1,300 murders since the beginning of the year, an average of 4.5 per day and one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world - nor in the JCF's problems with corruption and extra-judicial killings. Despite the fact that Lewin had many detractors in the JLP, the business community, and the media, Embassy contacts in the law enforcement community insist that he had not been forced out by the PM nor by the Police Service Commission (PSC),and that in fact the PSC had urged him to remain. Who Killed Cock Robin? -------------- ¶4. (C) According to law enforcement sources, Lewin apparently had insisted on certain unspecified conditions - presumably, that the JLP government would provide the legislative support needed for his holistic approach to crime reduction which would utilize traditional law enforcement methods in tandem with capacity-building programs such as youth intervention, community policing, and gang reduction - when he withdrew his resignation in 2008 following intervention by private sector interests and the diplomatic community (Reftel B). In his November 3 remarks to Parliament, the PM noted that "We have sought, within the limits of the resources available, to provide every possible support to him (Lewin) and the Force especially in their efforts to combat the high level of crime and violence that is plaguing the country." However, the relationship between Golding and Lewin continued to deteriorate over the months that followed, and the legislative package of six anti-crime bills Lewin had recommended continues to languish in Parliament (NOTE: In his remarks to Parliament, the PM blamed the opposition for the failure to enact this legislation. End Note). Furthermore, Golding reportedly demanded that the JCF adopt more aggressive law enforcement tactics with less concern for suspects' due process rights - what one source described essentially as the imposition of a "police state." ¶5. (SBU) According to the PM, he advised the Police Service Commission on October 14 that the GOJ had lost confidence in Lewin's leadership of the JCF, and shared those concerns with Lewin himself at a meeting on October 23 (NOTE: This meeting apparently took place three days after Lewin had drafted his resignation letter. End Note). By his own account, the PM "expressed the view that the Police needed to be more assertive and proactive in its operations in order to reduce of the level of crime and restore a sense of calm to the country." According to Golding, Lewin promised "that within the next few days I would see an intensification of crime fighting activities" (NOTE: There has been a marked increase in police vehicle checks in Kingston over the past several days. End Note) and requested to have more frequent meetings with the PM outside of the formal National Security Council meetings. On October 26, the JCF submitted a strategic operating plan to what was described by one source as a "rocky" Cabinet meeting, in which several Cabinet ministers were "antagonistic" toward Lewin over the nation's crime rate. Despite their seeming rapprochement in the October 23 meeting, Golding did not come to Lewin's defense in the Cabinet meeting (Reftel C). ¶6. (C) According to this account, Lewin had simply had enough of the political situation - the GOJ's intransigence in refusing the U.S. extradition request for Christopher Coke (Reftel D),refusal to support his community policing and anti-poverty approach, loss of confidence on the part of the PM, and the JCF's pervasive corruption - and chose to leave with his impeccable reputation for personal honesty and probity intact. However, contacts in the opposition People's National Party (PNP) speculated that Lewin's ouster (Reftel E) was due to the GOJ's perception that Lewin was supportive of the Coke extradition request. As JDF commander in 2005 and as JCF commissioner in 2008, Lewin twice ordered raids into Coke's Tivoli Gardens garrison stronghold, located in PM Golding's West Kingston constituency. ¶7. (SBU) Dwight Nelson, the Minister of National Security, has insisted that Lewin and the JCF have been given all the resources necessary to address the crime problem. However, the GOJ has not delivered on all of the resources the JCF has been promised, including several dozen police cars imported in recent months that remain impounded pending payment of USD 3.2 million. Lewin apparently had lost the PM's confidence in recent weeks. Accusing Lewin of "poor leadership" and focusing on policy to the detriment of operations, an anonymous GOJ official told The Daily Observer newspaper that "[t]he citizens of this country are living in fear because of crime, the morale in the police force is low and the commissioner is not visible." Nevertheless, Lewin has refused to accept the blame for Jamaica's relentless crime wave and has pointed the finger at the incestuous relationships between politicians, the political parties, and criminal organizations based in garrison communities for exacerbating the country's lawlessness. ¶8. (SBU) Meanwhile, the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) has urged the GOJ to tell the nation the "real reason" Lewin had resigned. In a November 2 statement, JCC President Milton Samuda demanded that "[w]e believe the nation has a right to know exactly why Police Commissioner Lewin has resigned and we call on the Government to move swiftly to restore a sense of security in our land." According to Samuda, "We view him as a police commissioner who has been forthright and who has operated with integrity. In our view, the firmness he displayed during his tenure is what is required in Jamaica at this time." Ellington Favored To Succeed Lewin -------------- -- ¶9. (C) In his November 3 remarks to Parliament, it had been widely expected that the PM would name JCF Acting Deputy Commissioner Owen Ellington as Lewin's successor. However, Golding announced that he would await a recommendation from the Police Service Commission regarding an Acting Commissioner and that a search process for a permanent Commissioner would begin thereafter. A career JCF officer with strong JLP ties and suspected links to organized crime (Reftel F),Ellington currently is in charge of JCF operations and policy and won kudos for managing security operations when Jamaica hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup. He also was instrumental in resolving a high profile airplane hijacking in Montego Bay in April ¶2009. In January 2009, Embassy Kingston's Public Affairs Section (PAS) sponsored Ellington's participation in the "Study of the United States Institute on National Security," through which he spent six weeks at the University of Delaware studying law enforcement methods (Reftel G). Green Airs Dirty Laundry -------------- ¶10. (SBU) On October 24, following the ninth police killing of the year, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Les Green incurred the wrath of the Jamaica Police Federation (JPF) when he alleged in a television interview that some murdered law enforcement officials had been involved in criminal activities. Although previous police commissioners, including Lewin, have made similar charges in the past, the head of the JPF, Sergeant Raymond Wilson, called Green's allegations "ill-timed" and "insensitive" to the victims' families, and called for the Scottish ACP's resignation. Green subsequently claimed to have the necessary evidence, although not to be at liberty to divulge it. Nevertheless, the following day the Gleaner newspaper reported that a large quantity of marijuana had been found in the car of the policeman most recently slain. Days later, another British expat and former Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mark Shields, told a PNP national security forum that Lewin was "the right man for the job at this time," although he believed that the JCF was too corrupt to be reformed and should be disbanded. Analysis: -------------- ¶11. (C) Coming on the heels of another high-profile resignation, that of Bank of Jamaica president Derick Latibeaudiere (Reftel H), the loss of Lewin is another blow to the reputation and credibility of PM Bruce Golding and the JLP. Two years into the JLP's tenure, the GOJ appears incapable of mustering the political will to address the nation's myriad social, economic and fiscal crises. A seasoned professional with a reputation for honesty and incorruptibility, Lewin was uniquely qualified to reform and foster a renewal of confidence in the much-maligned JCF. Although in his remarks to Parliament the PM lauded Lewin for his "steps to stamp out corruption in the Force, it is doubtful that anyone from within the ranks of the JCF, including Ellington, would have the reputation or the moral authority to root out the corruption within the JCF. Meanwhile, the Green imbroglio suggests that the JCF is less interested in reforming than in protecting its own. In forcing Lewin out, Golding and the JLP appear equally incapable and unwilling to seriously address the nation's crime problems or risk angering the criminal elements with which the party is intertwined. End Analysis. Stone