MAROON TOWN, St James — The crime-fighting capabilities of the troubled St James Police Division are expected to be significantly boosted with an additional police station in Maroon Town, and possibly another in the Cornwall Courts Housing Scheme in the parish, in the near future.

The finishing touches are now being applied to the Maroon Town facility, which, according to the St James Police Divisional Commander Senior Superintendent Steve McGregor, is scheduled for completion in May.

SSP McGregor noted that upon completion, the Maroon Town Police Station will assume the responsibility of policing many of the communities in the southern parts of St James that are now being served by the Spring Mount Police Station, which will be reduced to a police post.

“What is unique, though, is that the substantive station for this area will become a sub-station to the Maroon Town Police Station. This [Maroon Town] is a much larger facility than the Spring Mount Police Station that would normally be responsible for this area. Our commissioner [Dr Carl Williams] is here with us and he has committed the men and woman to staff the station,” SSP McGregor revealed.

Dr Williams, who stated that the police station in Maroon Town has been long in coming, has committed to staff the facility with 30 police personnel. He also noted that two service vehicles will be assigned to the soon-to-be-opened police station in south St James.

“This has been in the making for a long time. I instructed the police to come and take up occupancy of this building from last year, but they would not have done so because of the poor state of the building and the inadequate facilities. And so, we are now in the final phase of the refurbishment and the addition to the police building, so that within the next two or three months we can be up and running as a full-fledged police station,” said Commissioner Williams.

He further stated: “We intend to ensure the staffing of about 30 with 2 vehicles to maintain a permanent presence in and around the area. This is a very large police area, and when this police station is put in the district, we are going to have much more comprehensive coverage by police in the area.”

SSP McGregor cited Maldon, Garlands, Summer Hill and Point as some of the districts that will be served by the Maroon Town Police Station.

In the meantime, the police commissioner revealed that a property in Cornwall Courts is being contemplated to house either a police post or a police station.

“Some time ago the citizens association and the NHT (National Housing Trust) had offered to allow us to use these properties, so I am here in furtherance of that offer,” Commissioner Williams said.

“Still early days, but we will ensure that we put the property to good use if it comes to that.”

Both the police commissioner and the St James police divisional commander were among other members of the police hierarchy who toured the properties in Cornwall Courts and Maroon Town on Saturday, as well as the Stone Mill and Blue Hole communities in the parish, which were both the scenes of double murders on Good Friday.

The police commissioner pleaded with members of the Stone Mill community to refrain from carrying out any reprisal for the murders of their two community members.

“The police are always better able to arrest and bring perpetrators to justice. I have seen too many people who have taken justice into their own hands end up themselves as fugitives. We don’t want that. We want them to work with the police to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Williams stated.

On Good Friday Rose Marie Green, 28, and Douglas Tinglin, a 41-year-old taxi operator, both of Blue Hole, Montpelier, were gunned down in their community, while earlier that day, 50-year-old vendor Victor Kerr and 27-year-old Michael Thompson were both shot and killed in their Stone Mill community.