"Police as the new don"? An assessment of post-Dudus policing strategies in Jamaica

Since the 2010 'Tivoli Incursion', the policing strategies that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) uses in inner-city communities have been under scrutiny. We suggest that recent strategies employed by the police represent a form of intra-urban policy mobilities, involving the appropriation and adaption of strategies utilised by criminal 'dons'. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Kingston between 2008 and 2014, we discuss recent JCF activities in security and dispute resolution, social provisioning, and symbolic assertions of authority. These activities, we argue, reflect the JCF's recognition of the efficacy of security and legitimisation strategies popularised by dons.