Police want to partner with taximen to improve security
COMMANDERS in the St Andrew Central and St Andrew South police divisions say they are willing to partner with taxi operators on the Three Miles to Half-Way-Tree route to improve their security.
“Certainly. In fact, I would like to have a meeting, not only with the regulated operators but also those that run robot taxis, especially on the Maxfield Avenue route, and those that work at nights,” Superintendent Derrick ‘Cowboy’ Knight, crime chief for the St Andrew Central Police Division, said Wednesday.
Knight’s statement followed calls from taxi operators for increased security on the route, deemed as a haven for criminals.
According to the operators, they and their passengers are frequently robbed of cash, other valuables, and sometimes their vehicles, by armed men.
The latest incident occurred on Tuesday when one of two gunmen was killed, and the other arrested after a taxi they had stolen on Hagley Park Road crashed and overturned minutes later on Waltham Park Road during a chase.
But while Knight said he was aware of the incidents, he directed blame at some of the taxi men, who because of their illegal operation, distance themselves from the protection of the police.
“Some of the robot drivers tend to pick-up and let off everywhere, even in areas off the general route,” he said. “Some of them come out very early in the mornings and work till late in the nights. The police really can’t monitor them effectively when they do these sort of things and the gunmen know that.”
Taxis plying the Three Miles to Half-Way-Tree route normally use Hagley Park Road, a direct but often congested thoroughfare between the two points.
In an effort to avoid traffic jams, however, they often divert on off-roads.
Knight added that he is willing to work with officers in the St Andrew South division to bolster police presence, an offer Head of the St Andrew South Division, Superintendent Delroy Hewitt, welcomed.
“It’s not that our presence is not out there,” Hewitt said. “It’s just that in order to act effectively we need to improve dialogue. We have to deal with it collectively.”
