Cops getting help - Drastic decrease in cases of police slaughtering spouses
Published:Tuesday | November 8, 2016 | 12:00 AMRomario Scott
At a time when domestic violence is on the rise in Jamaica, there has been a sharp reduction in the number of police personnel murdering their spouses.
The police say that over the past two years, they have not recorded a single killing of a spouse of a cop which has been linked to domestic disputes.
Speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum last week, chief chaplain in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Gary Budhoo-Fletcher, said the chaplaincy of the force has managed to intervene in a number of domestic cases and provide help for struggling officers and their families.
"You have situations where a couple may not be managing well and they come to chaplaincy. We sit down with them [and] we work through the challenges they have. [With] some situations, we go into the homes and sit with the family," Budhoo-Fletcher stated.
"If children are involved, we counsel them or get help for them depending on how traumatised they are ... ," he added.
Budhoo-Fletcher, a pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, said the JCF has implemented a policy whereby it seizes the firearms of cops involved in domestic disputes pending the result of an investigation.
As part of measures to provide more support for its members, the JCF will be instituting peer counsellors in every police division, the chief chaplain has disclosed.