Jamaica has no special bomb squad

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

THE Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has no bomb squad, the unit that would respond to bomb threats, senior police officers have confirmed.

The officers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the newspaper, suggested that a lack of resources along with a cultural focus on the gun, were the likely reasons no such unit was here.

But asked whether they were concerned that bombings could reach local shores, the cops said there were trained officers who were "more than capable" to handle such a situation.

"There are several officers stationed across the island who are trained to deal with such a situation," said a senior officer from the Protective Services of the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), the unit that deals with such threats.

A recent report about a bomb threat at the Clan Carthy High School in Kingston two weeks ago was one of the latest that the police were called in to address.

Teachers at the Kingston-based school were on Monday, March 23 forced to halt classes and hastily evacuate students from classrooms after receiving a bomb threat from an anonymous caller.

"At about 7 yesterday (Monday) someone called the school and told officials that a bomb was on the school grounds," senior vice-principal Ekle Bailey told the Observer. She said the police were called in and the premises searched, but no bombs were found.

"I have been part of this unit for over 20 years and throughout that time in responding to various reports about bomb threats, the most I have heard of were Molotov cocktail bombs being found at the scene," said one of the senior NIB officers. "It is just not the culture in Jamaica."

The officer, however, said it was a good idea to look at the issue much closer as persons of all cultures were coming to the island.

-- Kimmo Matthews

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COMMENTS (5)

Duque Molton
4/6/2010

DWL at Real Southy. Bwoy u hit the nail on the head....

Adrian Wright
4/6/2010

"It is not just the culture in Jamaica." Yeah, that may be true to a certain degree, but it is the height of naiveity to suggest it can't happen in Jamaica and thus having a team dedicated to bomb deactivation and mitigation would make sense. Look, we recently had a Jamaican citizen who went abroad became an extremist muslim cleric and after a less than stellar existence is deported to Jamaica. This man is an known inspiration to muslim extremist elements, with the war on terror ongoing, do you think it's out of the realm of possibility that elements of that ilk and other copycats won't use explosives in Jamaica. If you do, you need to resign now and hand over the job to someone with vision and critical thinking skills.

Axel Foley
4/6/2010

Oh boy!!! Lol...
Get it together Jamaican High Command-Time for you to start training your
Forces so they can deal with almost any situation that comes their way.
Check this out: Half of a Jamaican politician’s yearly salary would pay for a weeks training for one at one of the top US Training Centers. That includes airfare, food and accommodations. All you need is one trained expert then before you know it you have well trained teams all over the country.

real southy
4/6/2010

yes J amaica have an Army and a Police Force but none a dem nuh have nuh use

tickyticky fish
4/6/2010

Dont Jamaica have an Army and a Police Force?

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Jamaica has no special bomb squad