NATIONAL Security Minister Peter Phillips, while hailing the reduction of violent crimes in the Grants Pen community in Kingston, yesterday pleaded to residents to move towards ridding their community of guns and ammunition in order to maintain peace in the area.

“We have to make the step from peace to disarmament,” Phillips said yesterday in his keynote address at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Grants Pen community policing and health facility. “As long as there are people who persist to keep illegal weapons, they constitute an ever-present threat,” the security minister added.

The $120-million facility is being built on the grounds of the Edna Manley health centre on Grants Pen Road and is expected to be opened to the public in another eight months.

In addition to the police station and health centre, the facility will also have a post office, Internet cafe, community meeting room and a helicopter landing pad.

Michael Lee-Chin, whose National Commercial Bank has donated $50 million towards the Grants Pen project, yesterday called for a concerted effort to break the back of crime which, he said, has been holding the country back.

“As business and social leaders, we have the responsibility to stop the slide,” Lee Chin said. “It is within our grasp. Let us join together to absolutely shoulder our responsibility,” said the NCB chairman.

Other sponsors include Ernie Smith and Friends, Jamaica Observer Limited, Air Jamaica, The ATL Group, Jamaica Broilers, Pan Caribbean and the University of Technology.

More than 100 officers have already been selected to work at the station when it opens. Over half the cops who will be assigned to work there have been trained by overseas experts in the rudiments of community policing.

According to head of the St Andrew North police division, Superintendent Assan Thompson, community policing has contributed to a significant decrease in violent crime in the community and an increase of trust between citizens and police.

“Once there was distrust between police and citizens and when we got a simple report of a threat, four cars used to go there. The officers would be dressed in steel helmets and protective gear. Since we have gone the route of community policing, there has been a significant turnaround in Grants Pen,” Thompson said.

Some of the money for the construction of the building was raised by the Heal Jamaica campaign – a combination of resources between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), the American Chamber of Commerce, (AMCHAM), the Ministry of National Security, Ministry of Health, and local businesses.

“It is a good move ’cause we want peace. I wish I could get some of the work though,” said Nicole Green, a resident of Grants Pen Avenue.

At yesterday’s ground-breaking ceremony, Opposition Member of Parliament Delroy Chuck and People’s National Party caretaker for North East St Andrew Leonard Green were presented with certificates by AMCHAM, in recognition of their combined efforts to broker peace between factions in the Grants Pen community.