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Cops: We need back-up - Call for more boots on the ground in East Kingston Division

Published:Friday | October 25, 2019 | 12:09 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Assistant Commissioner Devon Watkis (left) and Superintendent Victor Hamilton (right) listen to Dr Horace Chang, minister of national security, during a visit to the Mountain View Police Station in St Andrew on Thursday.
Assistant Commissioner Devon Watkis (left) and Superintendent Victor Hamilton (right) listen to Dr Horace Chang, minister of national security, during a visit to the Mountain View Police Station in St Andrew on Thursday.

The Kingston Eastern police are appealing to the Government for more resources to combat rising crime in the violence-plagued division.

During a visit by National Security Minister Horace Chang to Vineyard Town yesterday, area commander, Assistant Commissioner Devon Watkis, and divisional chief Superintendent Victor Hamilton and senior officers discussed a ramping up of manpower on the ground to repel the threat presented by gang warfare.

“We need some more numbers … . Once we have numbers, we can occupy the space,” Devon Watkis said during dialogue with the security minister, while calling for increased mobility as well.

There are currently 31 police stations and two police posts in the Eastern Kingston Division.

In the latest violent incident, on Wednesday, a man identified as Clifton Brown, 42, a reputed associate of a criminal don, was killed and five other people, including a pregnant woman and a child, shot and injured when a gunman stormed a doctor’s office on Deanery Road shortly after 10 a.m.

“The recent flare-up of brazen acts of violence in and around Mountain View and Vineyard Town communities over the last two months reminds us of the urgency in which we must continue to address criminal gang networks. ... I want to remind the public that the members of the Constabulary Force and the Defence Force remain unrelenting in their pursuit of these criminals and will utilise all the resources available to them in order to identify and apprehend these criminals.”

Dr Chang also commended the police for their work in a “very difficult area”.

The Government this fiscal year allocated an increase of $7.5 billion to national security over the Revised Estimates for FY 2018/19.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com