Monitors trained for full roll-out of police youth curfew
THE police-supervised youth curfew programme, aimed at getting young people off the streets of crime-plagued West Kingston by 9:00 pm, is to be fully rolled out within the next few days.
Head of Kingston Western Police Division Senior Superintendent Steve McGregor said the programme is now ready as the authorities have completed training for the first set of residents, who will act as community monitors under the initiative.
The 28 residents, of varying ages, were selected from Denham Town and Tivoli Gardens.
“These individuals are the first set of trained monitors and they will be given the task to go into the communities and ensure that young people under 17 are off the streets and in their homes by set periods,” said McGregor.
The divisional head was speaking at a recent meeting at the Police Officers’ Club in St Andrew to brief the monitors on the task at hand.
He said more training workshops are to be held to select residents from other communities.
Meanwhile, residents assigned as monitors said they were confident that the programme would work.
“I think that if we as residents want to see the change we will have to be the change and this is what we are doing under this curfew programme,” said Rashane Lambie, an 18-year-old resident of Matthews Lane.
“I think it is a good programme and I am hoping that residents will support the initiative,” said monitor Brandon Tulley.
The police said they were encouraged by the level of support that the programme has received and hoped the move was the start of greater things to come for West Kingston, where several residents were killed in a deadly feud taking place in the community.
Under the programme, there will be select monitors within the division who will be first responders for persons who breach the rules surrounding the curfew.
There will also be a three-strike rule to the initiative as the monitors will speak to the children and their parents when breaches are detected.
However, if the guardians fail to monitor the children and do not conform to the rules of the programme after two warnings, the community safety and security officers will be informed about the problem.
