KINGSTON, Jamaica— Police Commissioner, Major General Antony Anderson, has charged members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to contribute their best as they serve and protect Jamaicans.

He said the quality of internal and external service delivery is crucial to the JCF’s continued development.

“We’re going to continue building out our capacity to [fight crime] but, ultimately, it boils down to what each individual contributes to the whole. Now when everyone is contributing and know that they are contributing their best, there is absolutely no stopping us. Only if some people decide not to do that, then we start getting challenges.

“So, my charge, in 2024, is for each of us to step outside of ourselves and see how we can do our best in our roles as police officers and members of the JCF; and if we do that, then we must have a better force and, by extension, a better Jamaica,” Major General Anderson said.

He gave the charge while addressing the JCF’s annual devotion, at the Office of the Commissioner of Police in St Andrew on Tuesday, under the theme ‘Celebrating 156 Years of Advancement in People, Quality and Technology’.

Major General Anderson reminded the lawmen that their interactions with the public will contribute to determining society’s perception.

“In our interactions, and as we move into the New Year, we can think on these things and see how we are making the people we interact with feel. Is that interaction creating a feeling that is similar to the feeling that we would want if somebody was interacting with us?” he questioned.

“So even as we build the force and grow from strength to strength, particularly over 2024 and beyond, remember what I’ve said… the interactions that we have, you fly the flag of the JCF, you determine how we are all seen. That’s what we need to aim for; the way we do that is that when we see a problem, somebody in need, we step out and step up,” he stated.

Major General Anderson commended the JCF’s hard-working members for their sterling contribution to the organisation’s development.

“I want people to feel revved up about what we can accomplish this year. There’s nothing stopping us… we’ve been laying the foundation. We have a good, solid foundation that we should jump off of to get great things done,” he said.

The commissioner said despite the challenges, the implementation of an overtime system and the staging of the JCF’s technology exposition were some of the force’s notable achievements last year.

“The year had many big pieces that came together over 2023. There were challenges. But every single challenge is an opportunity, and I think we leveraged those opportunities collectively that, in the end, we moved the force ahead in a significant way. We got things done that couldn’t be done, haven’t been done. We put in place, finally, an overtime system, not perfect, but people have been paid for the time that they worked. It’s something that has been spoken about for a long time; we got that done,” he pointed out.

Major General Anderson also highlighted the organisation’s expo, which, “for the first time I believe, exposed our public in a massive way to what the JCF is”.

“Of course, what that did for us is set a bar of expectation from our public, that what they saw there is what they expect. The people they interacted with and how they interacted, that’s what they expect going forward, and rightly so; and I believe that that expectation is well founded, and we can deliver that,” the commissioner declared.