BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth — There was a sense of deja vu as former mayor of Black River Everton Fisher (PNP) rose to greet new commander of the St Elizabeth Police Division Deputy Superintendent Coleridge Minto at Thursday’s monthly meeting of the municipal corporation.

Fisher, councillor for the Balaclava Division, wished Minto well in his new command.

However, as he did just over a year ago when he said goodbye to then outgoing commander Superintendent Dwight Daley, the former mayor castigated the high command of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) for the regular to and fro in police leadership here.

“The constant putting in and removing of leadership of police in the parish, I don’t think it works…” said Fisher.

“In my mind, as soon as these commanding officers get to the parish and start to study the demographics of the parish, they are transferred,” he fumed.

Minto is replacing Superintendent Kenneth Chin, who replaced Daley a year ago.

The latest leadership change followed last month’s high-profile breakout of eight people charged with crimes, including murder, robberies, and shootings at the Black River Police lock-up. Members of Chin’s administrative team were also transferred.

The high command of the JCF said the transfers would better facilitate a thorough probe of the circumstances surrounding the jail break.

But an irate Fisher suggested the prisoner escape occurred because of a long-standing shortage of police personnel in St Elizabeth.

He noted that former police commanders in St Elizabeth have been “at pains to tell this honourable council that they are short-staffed…”

“The command needs to send more police men and women to St Elizabeth. You can’t be asking the [local] commanding officers to use basket to carry water. It grieves me to hear of the transfer,” he said.

Shortly after his arrival in St Elizabeth last year and since, Chin repeatedly made it clear that there is a serious shortage of police personnel in this south-central parish.

And in a recent Jamaica Observer story, a JCF member, who requested anonymity, claimed that Chin lobbied “countless” times for improvements in the infrastructure of the lock-up cells at the Black River Police Station.

” …He has always been lobbying and writing reports about the condition of the cell, and he has always been requesting other police personnel because the St Elizabeth Police Division is woefully short of police,” the source said.

The source credited Chin with a downturn in criminal activity in St Elizabeth earlier this year, including no recorded murders in May.

Fisher argued last Thursday that Minto will have a difficult job if the high command continues to ignore local challenges.

“I wish you well, but I know the challenges that are there for you and [they will remain] until high command understands the challenges in St Elizabeth,” Fisher told Minto.

Fisher suggested that if the situation continued, Minto might well find himself having to ask for special anti-crime initiatives such as zones of special operations (ZOSOs), as criminals flee areas experiencing intense police activity in Clarendon, Westmoreland, and elsewhere.

“I am saying to them, [police high command], don’t give you basket to carry water. This is a parish that needs some more boots on the ground,” said Fisher.

“Until that is done, then I will be here…to bid farewell to you and welcome another one…” he lamented.