St James policing banking on community relations
WESTERN BUREAU — The St James police are counting on strong community relations to help them fight crime in the parish and have made a concerted attempt to become more customer friendly.
“We have increased our neighbourhood watch visits. We’ve gone to every neighbourhood watch in the parish,” said assistant superintendent Dave Hyman. “We’ve also assisted in starting watches in (crime-prone) areas. Our widely publicised (community) meetings continue right across the parish… (And) the commanding officer has encouraged us to give our cell numbers and our office numbers whenever we attend these meetings.”
Hyman was speaking at a recent press conference to update the media on the parish police’s crime fighting efforts.
St James cops, he explained, have established youth clubs in the parish in order to help young people focus their energies on positive activities.
The lawmen have also embarked on an “Adopt-A- School” programme that provides supplies to educational institutions in inner city communities; and sometimes provide lunch money for children in inner city communities.
“One cannot study when one is hungry,” Hyman stressed.
The police have also done several one-time donations like a deep freeze that was given to the Rose Heights Basic School.
Most of these activities Hyman said, are taking place in the inner city communities of Glendevon, Norwood, Rose Heights and Rosemount because these are the areas in the parish where the more serious crimes — like murders and robberies — are taking place. In addition, he said, it is members from these communities that commit the majority of the robberies in the western city.
As a result, foot patrols have intensified in these communities, especially in the Joan Avenue and Blood Lane communities in Glendevon and several Rose Heights communities.
The aim of these patrols, according to Constable Peter Salkey, CCN liaison officer for St James, is to have the community members intimately acquainted with cops, in order to build trust. To boost this effort, there has also been a deployment of plainclothes police personnel, as well as the addition of 40 new cops in Montego Bay.
