Are you being served?
Published:Sunday | December 12, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
Several police stations are not responding to emergency situations involving major crimes, even though these crimes are committed close to the stations. Often, their colleagues who are some distance away are the ones to respond.
This information came out of an analysis of police data and points to a potentially crippling effect on the force's ability to efficiently and effectively fight crime. It was done by the Mona GeoInformatics Institute (MGI). Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee, director of the MGI, analysed the distribution of crimes against the distribution of police stations, and the results confirmed that all police stations are not equally equipped.
The police are well aware of this weakness, but can only lament the cost that would be involved in correcting it.
Head of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green, pointing out that the problem was worldwide, said addressing it would mean relocating and upgrading the stations ill-equipped to respond to calls, and that would be costly.
"The local stations are to provide an immediate focal point for the public," he told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday, "but the police patrols often come from the divisional headquarters or Mobile Reserve."
The MGI analysis was done to assess the effectiveness of police emergency-response systems.
"It is (the data) suggesting that not all stations are equipped to respond to all major crimes," Lyew-Ayee said.
Recommendation
One recommendation he said the Police High Command could consider is to "decentralise the response ability" of the JCF by better equipping smaller stations.
This is a position supported by the senior police officer.
"That's how they should be, but the reality of the situation is that we are woefully short on transportation. Transportation is a serious problem for the force."
The data analysed by the MGI also suggested that cops at some divisional headquarters might be overworked, which could also affect the system's efficiency.
Commenting on the findings, Horace Levy, board member of the Peace Management Initiative, argues that it is extremely important that police personnel closest to the crime be equipped to respond, especially in instances when a reprisal is likely.
He told The Sunday Gleaner that the police should examine the results of the MGI analysis with a view to ascertaining the reasons why some stations were being called upon more than others. "They should look at it. Certainly, it is something that needs to be corrected," Levy emphasised.
"In an ideal world, the Half-Way Tree Police Station should be responding to 245 major crimes for 2008, but in reality, they responded to at least 437," he pointed out.
In western Jamaica, the situation was worse. Based on proximity, the Montego Bay Police Station should have responded to 196 reported crimes, but the actual number of crimes responded to by that particular station was 507.
The analysis also pointed out that the Olympic Gardens Police Station was the only station on the list that actually responded to fewer crimes than those close to it, suggesting that the majority of these crimes are being responded to by stations that are further away.
The Hunts Bay Police Station should have responded to 209 crimes in 2008 but ended up processing 405 - almost 200 more cases.
The MGI, an arm of the University of the West Indies, has worked with the JCF and the Jamaica Defence Force for a number of years, assisting with building the capacity of their members in the use of geographic information system software and GPS technology.
Earlier this year, the MGI provided the security forces with detailed maps of west Kingston, which were used to strategically plan their incursion into Tivoli Gardens.