OCHO RIOS, St Ann — The Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA), with support from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) last week hosted a two-day Child Justice Guidelines training seminar for police and justices of the peace.

According to Assistant Commissioner of Police, McArthur Sutherland, who is in charge of Area 2 – which comprises St Ann, St Mary and Portland— the seminar was a well-needed refresher course for members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

“The officers have been trained to deal with issues affecting children, but over time their focus gets aligned to just murders and shootings because those are the most common and serious offences. Sometimes the brain is leaning more towards getting that murder rate down because that is the need as a country. This training will help to pull on some of the minor crimes against children and ensure we have some reductions there,” Sutherland told the Jamaica Observer at Moon Palace hotel in Ocho Rios, St Ann, where the event was held on Friday and Saturday.

The Child Justice Guidelines Training was aimed at reinforcing OCA-created procedures for how children are treated by those in law enforcement.

“The JCF is the face of justice; we are at the forefront of most of the issues affecting, particularly, children, so this is a very good move. Seeing broad stakeholder representation in the training is very good; we appreciate and applaud the training,” said Sutherland.

The seminar was attended by 76 members of the JCF along with justices of the peace from various police divisions and communities across the island. This partnership, according to Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison, is ideal for OCA to assist children with behavioural issues.

“What we are trying to do is reduce the criminogenic behaviour and attitudes of these children to ensure that they don’t become senior criminals. Your role continues to be extremely critical in this regard,” she told participants.

She spoke of society’s role in steering children away from a life of crime.

“No child was born a criminal or murderer, it is the environment that the child was brought up in that creates the monster that the system comes to know. Therefore, we have to play our part and there has to be serious intervention to rehabilitate our children and say to them, ‘This is not acceptable’. If we fail to play our part at an early age, that child could be the person who murders somebody. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen, we want to make sure that when we wake to use the bathroom we are not staring at that gunman over us,” urged Gordon Harrison.

She stressed the importance of justices of the peace (JP) in moulding young lives.

Trudy-Ann Philp, a JP from Highgate in St Mary, agreed.

“This seminar is very beneficial to me as a justice of the peace who has to serve in my community — not just for signing pictures but from time to time I’m called to go to the police station to offer service. Our children are dear to my heart and I believe in protecting their rights. This seminar was needed to refresh our competence and knowledge to ensure that we follow the legal procedures in how we execute our duties as JPs,” said Philp.

Omar Bourne, a JP from a community in Kingston, applauded OCA for hosting the training session.

“I’m all for children and finding the best ways to assist them, so this is very beneficial. I hope this is something that OCA will constantly do so that more police officers and JPs can be more educated,” he said.

Gordon Harrison, in her closing remarks, urged attendees to make every effort to keep working with the OCA.

“The OCA alone cannot do it, we see it as a participatory effort that all stakeholders in the justice sector must play a part in. We are counting on you, our children are counting on you to ensure we rescue and deal with our children appropriately. Our society is counting on you,” she said.

From left: Custos of St Mary Errol Johnson; Assistant Commissioner of Police, McArthur Sutherland; Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison; and Child Protection Specialist Mariana Badas, representing Olga Isaza, country representative UNICEF on the first day of the Child Justice Guidelines Training Seminar hosted for cops and justices of the peace at Moon Palace hotel in Ocho Rios, St Ann, last week.

Justice of the peace from Highgate in St Mary Trudy-Ann Philp was among last Friday’s participants at the Child Justice Guidelines Training Seminar hosted for cops and justices of the peace at Moon Palace hotel in Ocho Rios, St Ann.

Justice of the peace (JP) Omar Bourne, who is from Kingston, is looking forward to more educational training seminars like the one staged by the Office of the Children’s Advocate for cops and JPs at Moon Palace hotel in Ocho Rios, St Ann, last week.