Mount Salem Police Station Completed

Managing Director of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Omar Sweeney, says that construction of the new state-of-the-art Mount Salem Police Station in St. James is completed.

Speaking in an interview with JIS News, Mr. Sweeney shared that construction was concluded in April and the facility is now being outfitted with the necessary furniture and equipment.  It is expected to be handed over in mid-July.

“We started in January and we finished in early April, so it took us four months. It was quite a quick timeline,” Mr. Sweeny noted.

The facility was built by JSIF at a cost of approximately $45 million, with funding from the European Union (EU). It will benefit some 9,050 residents in Mount Salem and its surrounding areas.

The police station has private interview rooms and other amenities such as an armory, waiting areas, public restrooms and parking.

Construction was undertaken as part of the build phase of the Zone of Special Operations (ZOSO), now in place in the community, and is in keeping with the thrust by the Ministry of National Security to rehabilitate police stations across the island.

JSIF has been managing the social-intervention aspect of the ZOSO, which was instituted in Mount Salem in September 2017.

Mr. Sweeney said that the newly constructed station is a “community asset” that will improve the working conditions of police officers as well as boost police-citizen relations in the community.

“We want to build and sustain community policing as a part of the long-term solution to keeping the peace. So we have done a number of engagements with the Citizens Safety and Security Branch of the JCF,” he noted.

“We want to ensure that the infrastructure is there so they can have a place where the citizens can come and engage on a timely basis,” Mr. Sweeney added.