Hanover Police Institute ‘Big Brother, Big Sister’ Programme

The Hanover Police have embarked on a number of initiatives to minimise crime in the parish including the introduction of a ‘Big Brother, Big Sister programme’ for youngsters aged six to 16 years.
Superintendent of police in charge of the Hanover Division, Lynett Williams-Martin, told JIS News that, “the objective of the Big Brother, Big Sister project is to provide nurturing and mentoring relationships for children, so that they may grow and develop into excellent citizens”. As part of the anticrime initiative, she said that emphasis would also be placed on community policing by working with police youth clubs and neighbourhood watch groups within the parish. She explained that the objectives of the initiative was to reduce fear and restore confidence in the police; improve police responsiveness to criminal activity and improve the detection and conviction rate for crimes. The police Superintendent said the crime situation in the parish was “relatively quiet,” but expressed concern about increases in shootings and murders. Citing statistics, she said that 11 murders have been committed up to September 22 with five cleared-up, an increase over the five committed for the similar period last year, with three cases solved. There were 13 incidents of shootings with one cleared-up, while for the similar period for 2002, there were two shootings with both cases solved.
Six robberies have been reported so far this year, an improvement over the 17 of last year of which nine were cleared-up. Eight rape cases have been reported so far, with seven cleared-up, while in 2002, there were six reported rapes with three cases cleared. In terms of break ins, 11 have occurred so far this year, with all cases solved, in comparison to last year, when 10 of the 11 reported cases were solved.There were two cases of carnal abuse this year with both cases cleared a slight improvement over the three reported cases in 2002 with two cleared-up.