KINGSTON, Jamaica — Changes are underway for the JCF’s Criminal Records Office (CRO), according to Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson.

Anderson, who was speaking during his monthly press briefing on Tuesday, shared that as the demand for the police records and other services offered by the CRO increases, it is crucial that important services be revamped.

In his presentation, the Commissioner noted the challenges that the public has been experiencing in the past with obtaining documents from the CRO, and vowed a major overhaul of the CRO procedures.

“Over the last few weeks, we have been reviewing our processes at our Criminal Records Office located at 56 Duke Street and our three sub sites located in May Pen, Clarendon, Pompano Bay in St Mary and Summit in St James,” said the JCF head. He continued, “This is part of our ongoing modernization effort to improve the quality of our service delivery.”

According to a release, last year, the CRO produced more than 135,000 certificates for customers both locally and overseas, and so far this year it has generated approximately 88,000 certificates. That’s 65 per cent of the reports produced last year, with six months left in the year.

Earlier this year, the fingerprint system at the CRO was updated to further mitigate long wait times.

“We upgraded our Automated Palm and Fingerprint Identification System to a Multi-Biometric Identification System. This upgraded system will increase the storage capacity and reduce the processing time taken to generate police certificates,” the Commissioner said.

In addition to these changes, a testing phase for an online application and appointment system was introduced which has been successful.

According to the Commissioner, the public can expect a “qualitative difference in the customer experience” as they continue to build out the new and improved system.