Policing TG

• A foreign concept for residents and members of the security forces

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

Army and police vehicles of all sizes and shapes, ensconced near the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre, are a common sight these days.

So, too, are the uniformed policemen and women who took over the much-vaunted Presidential Click office one year ago, and the soldiers who commandeered the well-stocked bar next door and turned it into an army base of sorts.

"We leave them and they leave us alone," asserted one resident of Tivoli Gardens, her facial expressions even more eloquent than the words she uttered.

Just across the way from the community centre, one of a group of young men puffed on a ganja spliff, not even bothering to give a cursory glance at the police and soldiers a short distance away.

It was against this backdrop that Irene, the middle-aged woman, had summed up the tacit arrangement forged by civilians and members of the security forces - that each stayed away from each other.

room for improvement

Head of the Kingston Western Police Division, Senior Superintendent Terrence Bent, described the existing relationship as "acceptable", but conceded that there is "room for improvement".

Bent disclosed that a multifaceted Western Kingston Consultative Community is to be launched next week to address social issues as well as matters relating to crime.

One year ago, not many would have believed that the residents of Tivoli Gardens would walk by the centre without batting an eyelid at the police and soldiers operating in the middle of their community. That is the reality these days.

Absent is the constant exchange of suspicious glances between the members of the security forces and the people of the community.

Also missing is the gunfire from police and civilians that had marked Tivoli Gardens as the most feared community in the island.

Bent attributed the breakdown of anti-police sentiments in the community to constant policing and other initiatives.

But even in this seemingly tranquil atmosphere of acceptance, there are indications that the effects of the events of a year ago still linger.

lingering complaints

A young man who stood a short distance from the police-army base stared at the Gleaner team for a long while before stuttering a response to queries about his relationship with the police.

"Mi jus' come from country a week ago, suh mi nuh know what a gwaan," he told The Gleaner.

But another female resident complained that many of the law-enforcement officers continued to target the young men of the community.

"There is no wide-scale harassment, but sometimes mi nuh like how some a dem deal wid people," she declared.

"Some of the time, the people hit out because dem behaviour bad, dem treat the youth dem too rough," she added, as an army vehicle drove slowly by.

However, Bent said there were persons in the community who were bent on bashing the police.

"There is the small group of persons who wish to go back to last year, there must be a reason that some want to go back ... there must have been something that they lost," the senior policeman declared.

Bent said his team has been meeting with youth groups, churches and school principals in the area to push ahead.

"We have also met with residents of adjoining communities who have been influenced by the activities of Tivoli Gardens," he added.