A haven where children can do their homework and be surrounded by positive influences, in the form of the police, is what Waterhouse, St Andrew, resident Leonna Miller envisions the new, multi-storey Olympic Gardens Police Station will bring to the immediate and surrounding areas after its completion.

What currently functions as a police station, off Olympic Way, is a much smaller facility where seating arrangements are limited and persons visiting the station to lodge a report or otherwise are offered very little privacy.

Last week, Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson toured the existing station as well as the site for the new facilities, located at the intersection of Bay Farm Road and Olympic Way. He said the project was ahead of schedule and that the community would soon benefit significantly from the investment.

Anderson told journalists that the amenities at the station being used now were far inferior to the new facilities, which he said was in keeping with the “new way” in which police stations are being built. As part of this new way, Anderson said the compound will operate as a shared space with the community, with features such as an Internet cafe with Internet access and “ramps so everybody can access it”, among other things.

Taking those things into consideration, Miller has already begun to embrace the new police station.

According to her, the current station “is disorganised”.

“There are long waiting hours and then the space is very small and everybody cram up in that space. There are a very small number of seats in front of a desk and as you walk in, you see the officer at the desk and you report what you have to report. You can see everybody who goes into the station, basically…no privacy, and there is no parking space so you have to park on the road. What they are building now is a big station. Internet cafe sounds really good because the community needs things like that.

“A safe space is needed for the kids and the new police station would be a safe haven. They will have Internet so dem can go and do them homework. Dem can think bout life differently, being around the police and not bad men. They can motivate them, just being around them and showing them a different life separate from the normal gunman. What really influences you is the setting you are in and the people you have around you,” Miller told the Jamaica Observer as a reminder that Waterhouse and the general Olympic Gardens and Tower Hill region are often plagued by criminality, thus making the point that a bigger station was necessary.

Some areas in and around Olympic Gardens have been experiencing murders and shootings since the start of 2021, which has driven fear into many residents.

Just last month, gunmen shot and killed 52-year-old Ellia Pascoe and her 32-year-old daughter, Notoya Pascoe, both of a Dewdney Road address in Olympic Gardens.

The Hunt’s Bay Police reported that, around 11:00 am, mother and daughter were at home when a gunman approached them and started shooting. They were pronounced dead at hospital.