MONTEGO BAY, St James — The Trelawny police say they have been working with residents to target criminals seeking refuge in the parish.

In an interview with JIS News, head of the Trelawny police, Superintendent Carlos Russell, said residents have been assisting the police with information on the location of criminals and are reporting strange people in their communities.

“Trelawny has always been seen as one of those parishes where persons see it as a place where they can just come and ‘hideout’. But we have a good intelligence arm and citizens in Trelawny are very cooperative,” he said.

Superintendent Russell explained that as soon as a report is made, an intelligence team acts on the information to “ensure that we investigate and to find out the legitimacy of each person in the parish”.

“We are continuing to do our best to ensure that the persons who are coming are not wanted and that they are not criminals,” he stated.

Trelawny, he said, is considered one of the safest parishes in the country and the police will continue to effectively enforce the law as it is not a safe haven for criminals. “We are always doing our operational activities and whenever we know that these persons are in our area we [carry out] operational activities targeting them. Most of them know by now that this is not an area for them to come to operate [illegally],” Superintendent Russell said.

The commanding officer encouraged residents to continue to be on the lookout for strangers in their areas and not let down their guards.

The parish recorded 21 murders in 2020.

– JIS