Police Commissioner Urges Diaspora Support for Community Interventions

Commissioner of Police, Dr. Kevin Blake, is inviting diaspora support for targeted interventions at the community level as part of crimefighting measures.

“The best way to help the police is to help the communities that we police. If the community infrastructure [is there] then it makes our job that much easier,” he said.

Dr. Blake was participating in a Riverside Chat on Monday (June 17) as part of the 10th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St. James.

The Police Commissioner said it is important to create strong, supportive environments in communities that foster positive outcomes for youth.

“We, the police, are competing with gangs for the hearts and minds of our children and we need them to be in places where they are secure,” he argued.

“We are looking at community centres, building out facilities in the community where we get persons to help children with homework to keep them occupied, so we can remove that space that give criminals an opportunity to recruit these children. This is an area, I think, where we would welcome support,” he emphasised.

Dr. Blake cited Project STAR (Social Transformation and Renewal), as one area where overseas Jamaicans can contribute.

The programme facilitates one-on-one engagement with community members to create targeted support.

It is a social and economic transformation initiative created by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) in partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and driven by communities to bring about societal transformation through targeted interventions in under-resourced areas of Jamaica.

“One of the important elements is that we do not impose solutions on communities. We have a session where we engage with communities to identify their own problems, create a facilitating environment so that the solutions to those problems are derived from the community, and then we help to build those community programmes.

“So, they build the plans and we help them in executing those plans,” Dr. Blake explained.

The Police Commissioner said that one important aspect of the STAR programme that the JCF insists on is that the initiative delivers tangible benefits for residents.

“There is an entire arm of STAR that looks at economic development and job creation and it has been working wonders. We invite members of the diaspora… [to participate] where support can be given,” he said.

Project STAR facilitates consultation and collaboration with community stakeholders to identify needs, then work with partners – public, private, non-governmental groups (NGOs), multilaterals, individuals at home and overseas, to connect communities with the resources and services agreed in consultation.