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Caribbean Islands The Public Security Forces
Jamaica has endorsed measures to ensure security of the Western
Hemisphere but has not participated in any formal defense
agreements. Despite its proximity to Cuba, Jamaica has not felt a
need to maintain a large defense force, perhaps because it has
always had powerful protectors. Even with the support of the
police, the armed forces would be totally inadequate to resist
foreign military aggression, especially from Cuba. Like the other
English-speaking island-nations in the Caribbean, Jamaica would
have to rely on the assistance of a powerful ally in the event of
outside military aggression. The nation's combined forces also
would be inadequate to control a significant internal disturbance.
Jamaica has not been threatened by military or mercenary invasion
or internal insurgencies, however, in part because of its powerful
allies, but also because of its traditional political stability and
its relative isolation from mainland countries and the more
vulnerable Eastern Caribbean microstates.
In 1987 the Ministry of National Security (which had included
the Justice portfolio during 1974-86) remained responsible for
maintaining the internal and external security of the island, but
it no longer administered justice. In 1987 this ministry oversaw
the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF),
and the correctional programs and institutions. The Ministry of
National Security's 1986 budget allocation was approximately US$69
million for recurrent expenses and US$6.5 million for capital
works, accounting for 5.9 percent of the central government's
budget. In 1984 US$38 million of this ministry's budget was
allocated to the police force. The JDF budget declined in the 1980s
for budgetary reasons; it was approximately US$20 million in 1986,
as compared with US$25,430,000 in 1985 and US$38,880,000 in 1984.
Although traditionally apolitical, both the JDF and JCF were
subject to governmental policy directives. Their commanders--the
JCF commissioner and the JDF chief of staff, respectively--were
responsible for managing their respective forces on a day-to-day
basis. JCF and JDF commanders explained in December 1986 that the
minister of national security could make suggestions or
recommendations to either force, and the JDF or JCF high commands
could consider them as they saw fit.
Data as of November 1987
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