THE police yesterday announced plans to deploy 500 additional cops to the nation’s streets during the Christmas season.

The move, the constabulary said, was part of its efforts to reduce the incidents of crime and violence and to minimise the cases of drunk driving during the festive period.

Making the announcement at a press briefing at the Police Officers’ Club in Kingston yesterday, Acting Deputy Commissioner Linval Bailey told reporters that the increased police activities began as early as November 9, and signalled the lawmen’s reserve to take more proactive steps to crime fighting.

Among the additional officers will be trainees from the police academy, and persons who are normally assigned desk duties.

According to Bailey, administrative duties would be downscaled during the period in order to send more people out into the field, while there would be a suspension of training in all areas from early December. In addition, he said the recess of courts between mid-December and early January, and the suspension of vacation and departmental leaves until after the festive season would allow more officers to do operational duties.

“We welcome the reduction in murders and other major crimes but we are far from being complacent,” he said.

“In fact, we are even more proactive this year than in former years. In previous years our increased policing activities would have started somewhere around the first week of December, but for this year we started the ninth of November, with the plan to increase deployments week-by-week as we get closer to Christmas and the New Year,” said Bailey.

He said, too, that in addition to greater numbers of policemen and women on the roads during the Christmas season, the police would be increasing their police presence at financial institutions, shopping plazas, ports of entry, places of entertainment and commercial entities that handle cash. Also, special attention will be given to the enforcement of such regulations as the Noise Abatement Act and the anti-vending laws with a zero tolerance approach to the use of explosive fireworks.

With support to come from the Island Special Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Defence Force, Bailey said the constabulary’s strategies were “designed to enhance public safety and public order; prevent and detect crime; apprehend criminals and recover firearms, ammunition and other illegal items; curtail the movement of criminals; and provide an environment in which people feel free and safe to go about their lawful business”.