A New Police Station For Anchovy Very Soon

The community of Anchovy in St James and its surroundings are soon to benefit from a new police station, as ground was broken for the facility on Friday (March 25) by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Hon. Dr. Horace Chang.

The new two-storey 5,300 sq. ft. building is to be constructed under the Ministry’s ‘Project Rebuild, Overhaul, and Construct (PROC) initiative, aimed at making police stations island wide, modern and citizen-friendly workspaces.

The construction of the new Anchovy Police Station will be done in collaboration with the National Housing Trust (NHT) which is providing project financing and management at a cost of $200 million, and will be executed over the next two years.

Included in the scope of work is the construction of workstations and living quarters, a new sewage disposal system, the paving of driveways and parking lots, the erection of a boundary wall, installation of kitchen and laundry.

Additionally, there are plans to include renewable energy as well as water harvesting facilities in the new structure that will be providing employment and training opportunities following its completion.

In his address, Minister Chang stated that the construction of new police stations across the country is sending a strong message that the police force is transforming to meet the modern challenges of today.

“What we are doing as a government is to ensure we provide the citizens and the law enforcement of this country, the facilities that … can be of service. They are working hard, they are on the job 24/7 and they are challenged by some very difficult and hardened criminals out there. So, it is only fitting that we provide the tools to fight the criminals,” he explained.

He said Western Jamaica needs to be properly equipped with modern infrastructure to function effectively amidst the changing habits of hardened criminals, but must also be user friendly to the wider community.

Commissioner of Police, Major General Antony Anderson, noted that with the government’s continued investment in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), the entity is guaranteeing “higher than expected return on this investment.

“We have the men and women who are capable of doing that and so when we break ground on something like a police station in Anchovy, this is part of creating a police force that the country needs, wants and deserves,” he outlined.

The implementation of PROC was from a 2019 research on the state of police stations throughout the island.