Police to increase presence at transport, business centres

Thursday, March 18, 2010

THE police will be increasing their presence at the major transportation centres, business centres and commercial districts in the 19 police geographic divisions across the island.

Karl Angell, the constabulary's director of communication, said in a release yesterday that Acting Police Commissioner Owen Ellington has instructed that there be consistent and increased presence of uniformed and, where necessary, covert patrols at the transport centres, business and commercial districts. Mobile patrols, the release said, will also to be increased.

"Visible uniformed presence is a key deterrent factor to those who might want to commit crimes in these locations. As such all divisional commanders have been instructed to ensure that deployments in major transportation centres, business centres and commercial districts are done from early morning when commuters and persons going about their lawful business start using these facilities to late at night when the last person leaves our major transportation centres," the release quoted Ellington.

The directive from the acting police chief comes just two days after businesses and schools in downtown Kingston were forced to close early after a gunfight between police and gunmen in the inner-city community of Hannah Town left three cops injured and two gunmen dead.

The acting commissioner said that available resources -- physical and human -- are adequate to deal with the increased security presence. But he said divisions will over the next nine months receive additional personnel as recruitment and training have been considerably increased with a number of passing-out parades scheduled for the next three months.

"Over the last six months, more resources in the form of personnel and motor vehicles have been made available to divisions, especially those which have largely populated towns where major transportation centres, large business centres and commercial districts are located, and more will be coming," said Ellington.

"Planning templates to guide the management and deployment of resources in these locations have been developed and risk assessments have been done in order to ascertain the best and most effective levels of deployments," he added.

"These directives are non-negotiable and I am reassuring the public that the JCF will take control of these areas using the resources we currently have at our disposal," said Ellington.

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COMMENTS (1)

Paul Lewis
3/18/2010

Jamaica is faced with tough economic realities, it is now I feel, the right time to decide if we really need a J.D.F..Knowing full well the sense of pride we feel knowing that we have an army, it is however clear this is a luxury that cannot be afforded. The need to protect ourselves from invasion are few , therefore we need to look at evolving our army into more of a paramilitary force. They would be incorporated into the existing Polce force and trained in civilian law enforcement , there would still be sections for coast patrol, air and disaster management. To see this valuable and expensive resource only being used for ceremonial events and needing special authority to engage in fighting our crime problem is surely a waste. Iam not trying to demean our military but as old people used to say " we haffi tun han mek fashion ". We can find millions of ways to spend but never a thing to cut. Merging these two entities would be more effective in fighting what is now an increasingly un manageable situation, than facing reality.

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Police to increase presence at transport, business centres