THE Police High Command is advising all members who live or work in the St. Catherine North Division, especially Spanish Town and its environs, including Thompson Pen Road, Ellerslie Pen, St. John’s Road, Shelter Rock, March Pen Road, Jones Avenue, Tawes Pen, Lakes Pen, De la Vega City and Dempshire Pen, that based on the latest assessment by the National Intelligence Bureau, the threat level is now being upgraded to extreme.

This upgrade follows a series of incidents involving police personnel during the course of last week, following which several threats have been made against them by criminals aligned to gangs in the area.

The raising of the threat level to extreme means that the risk of attacks by criminals on police personnel and facilities is imminent.

The Police High Command is urging all members to take seriously this threat assessment and raise their level of awareness and anticipation on and off duty. Deployments must not fall below defensive levels and personnel should be prepared to act swiftly and decisively in defence of themselves and colleagues.

The Police High Command wishes to assure all members that they have the full backing of the High Command in any lawful action taken to defend themselves and citizens of Jamaica.

The High Command has also directed the Police Control Centre to broadcast security reminders to all police personnel on a regular basis in order to keep members alert