JCF to deploy 55 police as school resource officers
Published:Wednesday | March 30, 2022 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
COMMISSIONER OF Police Major General Antony Anderson says 55 police officers who have just completed training as school resource officers will be deployed in schools across the island where activities among students require preventative measures.
His announcement follows several violent and deadly conflicts involving students in schools across the island, including the fatal stabbing of Kamal Hall on March 21. Hall was a student at William Knibb Memorial High School in Trelawny.
Two days later, a grade 10 Papine High School student succumbed to gunshot injuries he received while walking on Liguanea Avenue, St Andrew, in a reported robbery attempt.
On that same day, a third student was injured, this time a grade 11 student of Excelsior High School in St Andrew, after being stabbed at the Mountain View Avenue institution.
According to Anderson, the police are responding and treating the symptoms of these issues that have evolved in a bigger way with the return to in-person, face-to-face school.
“Schools are opening up back to face-to-face (learning) and conflicts will occur. We are responding in a very significant way to this challenge that we’re facing,” said Anderson. “I went to meet with 55 officers who are just trained as school resource officers, to equip them to get involved in this issue in schools.
“Part of that is to respond as law enforcers, but then an equally significant part of that is to be mentors to the students in the schools,” he stated.
The police commissioner was speaking at the recent groundbreaking exercise to rebuild the Anchovy Police Station in Anchovy, St James. The station was closed in 2008, having fallen into disrepair. Since then, the police have been accommodated at a section of the Anchovy Post Office.
Meanwhile, the police commissioner said efforts are being made to stem those problems at schools and other domestic issues through domestic violence prevention centres. He noted that up to last Friday, a team of officers from the Trelawny Police Division were undergoing training on domestic violence in order to help citizens resolve disagreements.
“Domestic violence in Trelawny and in other places in the country can easily transition into other crimes, into murder, that’s what we’ve seen,” said Anderson. “Now as a force, we’ve had to respond to this because what we want to do is prevent the murder, not just investigate murders, and for that reason we opened six domestic violence intervention centres last year.”
The Jamaica Constabulary Force currently operates 10 domestic violence intervention centres in the parishes of Kingston, Clarendon, St Ann, St Catherine, St Elizabeth, St Mary, St Thomas and Westmoreland. These centres are pivotal in bridging the trust gap between the police and citizens, and serve as a critical tool to handle violence resulting from domestic feuds.