Commissioner urges parental vigilance

COMMISSIONER OF police, Major General Antony Anderson, is imploring parents to be vigilant. He urged them to safeguard children who are now on summer holidays, and who will be attending parties which offer Molly and Ecstasy, stimulant drugs that are also referred to as party drugs, which alter one’s behaviour.

The top cop was speaking yesterday during the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) virtual quarterly press conference.

Anderson asserted that the majority of the nation’s children will be out of school and under reduced supervision as parents go out to work.

“It is important that our parents and guardians know what their children are doing at home, both on and offline,” Anderson said.

The police commissioner also encouraged parents to monitor what happens when their children attend parties and other social events.

“We are seeing a growing trend involving the sale and use of recreational drugs such as Molly or Ecstasy at these events. We urge parents to discourage the use of these drugs whilst we address the criminal aspects of this matter,” Anderson said.

Child-safety issues

The police commissioner also said that the June 8 killing of eight-year-old Danielle Rowe has highlighted safety issues that relate to children.

“This year in the four instances where children 12 and under were killed, the perpetrators were known to the victims and in positions of trust,” Anderson observed.

The occasion was also used to update the nation on crime and other matters of national importance.

The JCF said at the halfway mark of the year, major crimes are down 16 per cent compared to the similar period in 2022.

Murders are down 13 per cent or 94 less, shootings are down by 12 per cent or 71 less, rape is down 25 per cent or 63 less and robberies declined by 23 per cent or 111 less. Break-ins are also down 12 per cent or 62 less than the corresponding period in 2022.

The commissioner also told journalists that the police were actively pursuing eight prisoners who escaped from the Black River police lock-up in St Elizabeth.

Anderson said: “We are still in pursuit of them, the eight of them that escaped. We have come close to them a few times, various ones of them.”

Anderson says the police have done some good work in identifying their whereabouts.

“We don’t want to say much. We are using all our intelligence, sources and apparatus to catch up with them,” he stated.

On June 19, the men were discovered missing during routine checks. The checks were conducted between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. An alarm was raised and further investigations revealed that the prisoners escaped through the facility’s ventilation system. Several senior policemen, including the head of the division, were immediately transferred as a result of the jailbreak.