South St Andrew police get closer to inner-city residents
POLICE from the South St Andrew Division yesterday treated residents of Tavares Gardens and surrounding communities, and also played games with them, as the crime initiative implemented in those communities just over a year ago takes on a new face.
More than a thousand seniors and children were feted and treated to snacks throughout the day, in what the police say is an attempt to work closer with the inner-city communities.
The residents from Tiger Valley, Building, and Low Rise areas of Tavares Gardens, more popularly known as “Payne Land”, as well as Seaview Gardens, Delacree Park, Delacree Pen, McKoy Lane and Rose Town, had smiles on their faces as they played netball, football, basketball and dominoes with the police.
The little ones, at the same time, gleefully enjoyed the bounce-a-bout, merry-go-round and Ferris wheel which were brought into the area for their pleasure.
“This is the way we have to go with policing,” Superintendent Claude Samuels, head of the South St Andrew police told the Observer. “The community and the police must bond in order to enforce the rule of law”.
The fun day was organised by the Jamaica Constabulary Force along with the Tavares Gardens Citizens Development Committee and National Commercial Bank.
A multi-purpose court, which was constructed with money from the CHASE Fund, was also opened yesterday at the community centre along Payne Avenue.
However, representatives from the Mongoose Town community were missing from yesterday’s get-together.
“I can’t explain. They were contacted about the fun day more than once and they did not respond,” according to Devon Stephens, sport co-ordinator of the Tavares Gardens Citizens Development Committee.
A feud between gangs from the Mongoose Town and Payne Land communities in 2002, which claimed several lives, forced the police to erect a police post in Payne Land in December of the same year.
The police maintained a constant presence in the area for 12 months before removing the police post and scaling down their activities in the area to foot and motorised patrols.
