Community Policing is the Way Forward – SSP Ferguson

Community policing, in which citizens and the police unite to combat criminal activities, is the way forward if the country is to become a safer and more peaceful place for people to live.

This was the view expressed by new Commanding Officer for St. James, Senior Superintendent Paul Ferguson, when he met with police support groups from across the parish at the Montego Bay civic centre, recently. Mr. Ferguson put forward a list of wide-ranging strategies, which he said, should see criminal activities significantly reduced by year-end, with the support and assistance of citizens.

“The present crime rate within the parish cannot be accepted or tolerated by the police and so measures will be put in place to reduce this. The parish will soon be zoned and each zone will be placed under the direct responsibility of a Commanding Officer,” he noted.

“We have observed certain developments in educational institutions and are taking steps to minimize and to discourage negative trends that can eventually lead to crime. Efforts are therefore presently underway to have a Police Officer assigned to every educational institution in the parish,” the Senior Superintendent added.

He said it was the responsibility of the police and citizens to work together to minimize crime and to bring about a better standard of living for all the people.

Mr. Ferguson urged all concerned Jamaicans to begin to believe in what they wanted for the country and their children, and to move now in creating the necessary partnership with the police so that “we can take back our country from the criminals”.

Several Justices of the Peace, and representatives from police youth clubs, community consultative committees, citizens’ associations, the scout movement and religious organizations attended the meeting which was convened to discuss the crime situation in St. James.