Overseas cops mull anti-gang strategy

THE LAW-enforcement experts brought here by the European Union (EU) to boost the crime-fighting capabilities of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) are now meeting with top security officials to gather information that will be used to develop a comprehensive anti-gang strategy.

One of the experts, Raymond Foster, a retired lieutenant with the Los Angeles Police Department, said the strategy would examine a wide array of activities and help the Jamaican law-enforcement personnel to identify the intervention points and the strategies to be used.

A key issue for Jamaica, he explained, was the need to differentiate between groups of men hanging out in their community "being a little bit of a nuisance" and highly organised criminal organisations, each of which, he added, requires a different intervention.

"Young men hanging out (on street corners) need something else to do. They need education, sports, social programmes, support ... they need mentors. That's different. Highly organised criminal groups need to be in prison," Foster told The Gleaner yesterday.

Calling it a complex problem, Foster said at the end of the "fact-finding" phase, the team will work with the Government and the JCF to hammer out the details of the strategy.

"We are not hear to reinvent the wheel. We are here to discover and then to point out and to help create new places," said Foster, whose three-month stay in Jamaica will be funded by the EU.