FAKE kidnappings, with ransom requests engineered by wayward teenagers wanting to return home after rendezvous with their beaus, are among the disappearances keeping members of the National Strategic Anti-Gang Division busy.

According to Detective Inspector Paulette Wynter-Crossfield, station manager at the National Strategic Anti-Gang Division — a unit in the Counter-Terrorism and Organized Crime Investigation Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) — teens account for the most disappearances; however, not all missing reports are equal.

“We have fake kidnappings; most of those kidnappings are done by teenagers reporting fake kidnapping. So you have teenagers who go out with their male friends, for whatever reason spend days, and then when they want to return home, they make contact — either them or they ask someone to make contact — with family members to say that they are kidnapped and demanding money for release,” Wynter-Crossfield told Senior Superintendent of Police Dennis Brooks on Sunday’s Force4Good Podcast, a JCF initiative.

Detective Sergeant Grace Frazer-Lawrence, sub-officer within the division, said while investigators still have to probe every report, some individuals end up in trouble with the law when the facts are laid out.

“Creating public mischief is what it is classified as and what you can be charged with. Because, of course, we are going to use the resources of the Jamaica Constabulary Force to try and bring you home safely…As we’re investigating, sometimes we will see what is happening but, however, we still have to make sure that the…so-called hostage is returned safely, and upon doing that, and using our resources, yes, we prosecute, when necessary,” she pointed out.

In the meantime, the law enforcers said the National Strategic Anti-Gang Division has a 100 per cent success rate regarding the safe release and return of hostages, whether fake or genuine.

“And why we consider it 100 per cent is because our primary objective when treating with these cases, especially kidnapping, is the safe release and return of the hostage. Certainly, all cases of kidnapping that are reported to us, once we start our investigation, and we have our negotiation going on with all of our trained officers, we have the hostage released and returned safely,” Wynter-Crossfield told Brooks.

She said, for 2024, just under 20 cases were reported.

“So we had 18 cases reported last year; two of them were really genuine, but in all cases persons returned home safely.

“And we have four [cases so far] this year,” she said, adding that two of them were genuine. “We charged six persons this year for those offences…in [the other] two cases.”

In the meantime, the sleuths said incidents of kidnappings in which individuals pose as operators of public transportation seem to be on the rise.

“So the trend that we are seeing now is where there are taxis or… motorists operating motor vehicles pretending to be taxis and then persons who are so unsuspecting, not knowing that this is not a taxi, enter the vehicle…They are [then] held at gunpoint in the vehicle and taken to an ATM [and], forced to give their banking information for the criminals to withdraw monies.

“I wouldn’t say it’s prevalent now, but it is on the rise. A few years ago we had it where we’d consider it as prevalent, but we realise it’s coming back now,” Wynter-Crossfield said.