Denham Town ZOSO not perfect, but getting results

WESTERN BUREAU

“ALMOST FIVE years later, the numbers are not perfect, but we are moving in the right direction,” says Omar Sweeney, deputy chairman of the Zone of Special Operation (ZOSO) Social Intervention Committee of the Denham Town ZOSO in Western Kingston.

“There is a lot happening there. The citizens want the security presence to remain because they don’t feel that we have completely solved the problems in terms of reverting to normal conditions,” Sweeney said of the Denham Town ZOSO.

In 2020, there were 24 cases of murders in Denham Town, but that figure fell to 13, or 45 per cent, at the end of 2021. There was a further decline in the number of shootings by 23 per cent, down from 39 to 30 for the same period.

The police have also recovered more illegal firearms from the space last year. In 2020, 21 guns were seized while, for the calendar year 2021, there were 26, bringing the total recovered so far to 44, since the ZOSO was established.

MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

“The numbers are not perfect, but we are moving in the right direction,” Sweeney said in a Gleaner interview of the multi-agency approach, seeking to transform the community from decades of gang conflicts.

Residents of Denham Town, the gritty and impoverished community which has been gridlocked in a protective space by the ZOSO, have seen a slate of projects, to include road infrastructure, the construction of new houses and a community park, all in an attempt towards transforming the lives of residents through the social intervention arm of the ZOSO.

“We have gotten very encouraging results, we’ve done a lot of upgrades to the infrastructure, housing stock and zinc fence removal,” Sweeney explained.

The geographic space was declared a ZOSO in October 2017, becoming the second community of six to be so designated, following the passage of the Law Reform (Zones of Special Operations – Special Security Measures) Act of 2017.

The security initiative was implemented to rid Denham Town of rampant criminality and an overflow of gang feuds. Mount Salem in St James was the first to be declared in September of that year.