KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – The manpower of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has been boosted with the graduation of 244 new recruits from the National Police College in Twickenham Park, St Catherine, on Friday.

The graduates, comprising 198 males and 46 females, completed seven months of rigorous training, which included law and police procedures, baton and firearm expertise, and practical policing psychology and sociology.

The ceremony included the presentation of five special awards for best shot, highest mark obtained, best Christian principles, best all round student, and best leadership qualities.

Minister of National Security, Peter Bunting, in his brief address to the graduates, urged them to serve with professionalism and integrity.

“Do not risk your career and reputation,” he said.

He told them that “for most people of Jamaica, the police officer is the principal representative of the state, so please represent with professionalism and passion”.

Chairman and chief executive officer of Manpower and Maintenance Services, Audrey Hinchcliffe, who delivered the keynote address, told the graduates that effective policing requires a symbiotic relationship between themselves and communities.

“I urge you to draw on the relationships you have cultivated with those outside of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and use them to your advantage,” she said.

Urging them to be visionary and transformational, she said that Jamaica needs men and women with a larger vision of themselves, “whose greatest weapon is the brain that God gave them; who can use the power of thought and imagination to envisage a better nation and convert those thoughts into policies and actions to transform communities and the country”.