POLICE Chief Lucius Thomas insisted yesterday that the police maintained a right to go into any community to hunt for criminals.

Thomas’ statement at a press briefing at his Kingston office, was in reference to criticism following Tuesday’s joint police/military operation in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) stronghold of Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston to search for men said wanted for the murder of three policemen in Kingston earlier in the year.

The police and military have come under heavy criticism from the Opposition JLP and human rights groups for the shooting and injury fo four people and the way others in the community were rounded up during the operation.

“I would like to assure Jamaica that wherever criminals are, be it in St James, Westmoreland, St Ann, Kingston and St Andrew, including Cherry Gardens, Jones Town, Whitfield Town, Dunkirk, Mountain View, Tivoli Gardens, Arnett Gardens or Matthews Lane, the police will enter and pursue them,” the police commissioner told reporters.

The commissioner said three men – Christopher Miller, nicknamed “Nunu Puss”, “Harry Dog” and “Hitis” – for whom the police were in pursuit, escaped because of a 20-minute delay caused by ‘sentries’ at Tivoli firing guns to alert the community to the presence of the security forces. The warning shots, he said, were followed by heavy gunfire on the security forces.

“This actually held up the operation for a while. It delayed the deployment of cordons around the targeted buildings, added the commissioner.

Commissioner Thomas said the police were offering a $1-million award for the arrest and conviction of each of the three fugitives.

In the meantime, Acting Deputy Commissioner Linval Bailey, who was in charge of the operation, said that most of the shooting at the security forces came from outside of the cordoned area. He said that although the curfew in support of the operation took place in all of Tivoli Gardens, only the Tivoli Court section was cordoned.

Thomas told reporters that 74 persons were detained, and 300 pounds of ganja seized as were 30 cellular phones found in the house of a suspect. Of the 74, all have been released except, two who were charged with possession of ganja, four with shooting with intent, and one on a bench warrant, having absconded bail in St Mary.

The commissioner said a helicopter which had been providing air support during the operation also came under gunfire, which damaged a rotor blade, disabling it for a while.

“Luckily this hit did not bring down the helicopter which could have resulted in a major disaster,” he said.

The Jamaica Defence Force had turned over to the police, he said, an improvised explosive device (IED), made from dynamite and other explosives. It had been thrown at the security forces but it had not gone off.

Commissioner Thomas dismissed as “unfortunate and completely false”, the picture that has been painted that the security forces had launched “a calculated assault” on the citizens of the community of Tivoli Gardens.

While “we are not naive”, he said, “and while we are aware of the political leanings of some communities, our operational activities have never and will never be influenced by those considerations. Our activities are intelligence-led and we are resolved to go wherever intelligence leads us”.

Commissioner Thomas expressed regret that four people were shot and wounded in the operation and said the circumstances in which they came to be shot was being probed.