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St Bess cops get tough on crime
December 19, 2018
Although her parish is not one of the parishes that has been targeted by the security forces as part of a massive islandwide operation aimed at reducing major crimes, head of the St Elizabeth police, Senior Superintendent Catherine Lord, says she is not perturbed.
She told THE STAR that she recognises that the police have limited resources, and she is confident that operations in neighbouring parishes would have a positive effect on St Elizabeth.
"We are anticipating that this will impact us positively because it means that we will have more security at the borders over from Westmoreland and St James," she said.
Earlier this month, the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) said that sections of Westmoreland, Hanover, St James, Clarendon, St Catherine, and Kingston and St Andrew will see a large deployment of soldiers and police during December. The security forces promised to conduct targeted raids, vehicle checkpoints, aerial operations, patrols, cordon and searches, snap raids, and curfews in the pursuit of wanted men.
While St Elizabeth is not among the targeted parishes, Lord said that as a division, they are trying their best to curb the crime situation. She said that the police would conduct regular spot checks and patrols.
MORE PERSONS ON THE STREET
"If we get some assistance, we appreciate it, but we do not plan with that in mind. We try to be strategic in how we police the division. We have scaled down persons working in offices so that we can get more persons on the street," she said.
As a way to help lessen the chances of criminal activities, Lord said that they have also implemented a one-way traffic flow in Santa Cruz. She said that this is something that they have been doing for several years during the Christmas season.
"When you ease congestion, you also deter some persons who would want to use congestion to create any form of mayhem or to do any form of criminal activity," she said.
Lord is asking citizens to support the activities of the police as they try to make this a safe Christmas.
