Audley Shaw, minister of finance and the public service, has weighed in on comments made by Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Les Green that some police officers have died as a result of their shady and corrupt dealings.

Green came in for criticism from the Police Federation, which asked that he prove his allegation or resign. Police Commissioner Hardley Lewin has placed a gag order on the parties involved.

Shaw, while acknowledging that there were good men in the police force, said there were indeed police officers that were corrupt.

"I said it publicly and I will say it again, I, too, believe, as Senator Nelson (Minister of National Security) had said, that the majority of our police officers are honest people, but I, too, believe that there is a sufficient number among them who are dangerously corrupt and dangerously disruptive," he said while addressing an audience at the launch of the 2009-10 Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF) Salary Survey yesterday.

"It is a crisis! We will not be able to clean up corruption if when my tax department speaks of stolen motor-vehicle rackets, you learn that rogue elements of the police force are involved," he said.

"And I must not talk about it? Because of a public-relations exercise (where I want to) appear to be a friend of every single policeman in this country, I am not the friend of a corrupt policeman!" Shaw said angrily.

The finance minister said he would not pretend that the problem did not exist, as corruption was prevalent even in his own tax department.

"It is a sad day that even in my own tax department, I am confronting the issue of illegal registration where titles are illegally being tampered with, leaves removed, illegal licence plates produced," he disclosed.

Car cloning

He said he was faced with the issue of cloning where one car had the same colour and licence plate as another.

Shaw then went on to give an example where Commissioner of Customs Danville Walker's wife saw a car with the same colour and licence plate number as hers.

The minister also took a swipe at Damian Crawford, president of the People's National Party's Youth Organisation, who, he said, was acting as if there was no corruption in the force.

"I would question his own credibility as a person who is looking forward to being part of the future political leadership of this country," he said.

"And I will say to young Crawford, my mother used to say, 'Speak the truth and speak it ever, cost it what it will'," said Shaw.

Solutions, Shaw said, would not come unless each Jamaican got involved.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com