ST CATHERINE, Jamaica — Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has committed one billion dollars over the next four years to fund security initiatives as part of his ministry’s efforts to support the Ministry of National Security’s drive to tackle crime.  

He made the announcement as he addressed the closing ceremony for the first batch of 89 graduates under the new District Constables Training Programme, at the National Police College of Jamaica in Twickenham Park, St Catherine on Tuesday. 

Bartlett underscored the importance of the partnership between the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) and the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) in boosting safety and security in the island’s resort areas.  

He explained that “an emphasis on intelligence gathering and the better use of technology as a critical tool to drive greater detection and monitoring is critical in all of this and we will be partial in terms of our allocation to the acquisition of intelligence gathering equipment and boosting our ability to track the criminals, because they are not many”.

Bartlett also noted that the new District Constables Training Programme will add an entirely new layer of security that will strengthen the formal security arrangements in resort communities and help to effectively tackle the issue of visitor harassment.

The 89 district constables are to be deployed across prescribed areas and resort towns islandwide. Another 11 officers will be added to bring the initial complement to 100 by the end of the year and a total of 250 officers will be trained by 2018.