THE St Mary Police have launched a programme to target and rehabilitate more than 100 of the most ‘troubled students’ in the parish come the start of the new September school term.

"The model programme aims to target students who would have been displaying some of the highest level of anti-social behaviour within the schools," Deputy Superintendent Edgar Brown told the Observer today.

The programme is the brain child of Constable Odel Harris, a member of the Community Safety and Security Branch in St Mary and is aimed at taking a more proactive approach to addressing crime and working closer with students within the schools.

The programme will be carried out under the Ministry of National Security Safe School initiative, which is a unit of the Community Safety and Security Branch and will be launched under the name Student Empowerment Programme (STEP).

Corporal Rochell McGibbon, one of the Safety and Security Branch coordinators in the parish, said at-least 20 students from the eight schools in the parish will be selected.