Hanover police outline plans to tackle crime, indiscipline

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE LEADERSHIP at the Sandy Bay Police Station, in the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Hanover division, has begun to put strategies and plans in place to counter indiscipline and any form of criminal activity that may raise its ugly head in the coming months in that area, with special emphasis on the town of Hopewell and its growing business community.

To this end, a community meeting was convened at the Orchard Community Centre and Sports Complex, located in the town of Hopewell, involving representatives from the JCF, the Hopewell business community and members of the general public.

The discussions were led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Rowan Fletcher and Station Commander at the Sandy Bay Police station, Woman Inspector Nadine Murray-Brown and covered matters such as the daily traffic congestion in the town of Hopewell, the road conditions in the town, and on the approaches to the town, both from an easterly and westerly direction, also general safety measures for the upcoming Yuletide seasonfor both individuals and businesses. The transferring of cash by businesses persons to the banks located in the city of Montego Bay, some 16 kilometres away, also attracted some amount of discussion.

“Added to all that is the matter of the unorganised delivery of goods to the businesses in the town square at any hour of the day, which also creates havoc, as when the trucks are there, neither private vehicles nor taxis have anywhere to park,” Murray-Brown told The Gleaner.

She noted that coming out of the discussions, an agreement has been arrived at with the business persons, which should help somewhat in alleviating the daily traffic congestion in the town square.

“The business owners know exactly when the delivery trucks are coming, and the plan is that they will try and secure a space in front of their business for the trucks to properly park while doing their deliveries,” she pointed out.

“There might be persons who do not want to comply, so they will be using a barrier so when the trucks arrive, there will be no need for them to park in the road to obstruct the traffic,” she added.

ISSUE WITH TRANSPORTING MONEY

With the nearest bank for the deposit of cash located some 16 kilometres away in the city of Montego Bay, the matter of the transportation of lodgements to those institutions was a huge concern for both the business owners and the police.

The business owners were advised that for those who do not have a contract in place with a courier company to pick up and transport their cash to the bank, they can always rely on the Sandy Bay Police to assist if and when they are duly notified.

With reference to recent robberies that have taken place in different communities across the island, Murray-Brown stated, “While we do not want what has happened elsewhere to happen in Hopewell, we want to ensure that the monies that they (the business persons) collect, they get to deposit them in the bank, and so we have said to them, if you do not have the couriers to come, please engage the police.”

She also noted that the implementation of different forms of alarm systems for use in case of emergencies was discussed.

“We are going to see how the strategies we discussed have worked, and by November, we will have another meeting with the business persons and the community representatives, and if we have to make adjustments to the plans to ensure safety, security, and the smooth-flow of traffic, we will,” Murray-Brown argued.

She told The Gleaner that the Sandy Bay police have decided to pay special attention to the traffic flow in and out of the town of Hopewell, adding that implementation of some strategies has already started.

Derrick Wright, president of the Hopewell Citizens Association, while commending the proactive approach of the Sandy Bay police, questioned whether they would have enough manpower to carry out some of the outlined strategies and plans discussed.

“While we cannot wait on an incident to happen before we start planning or wait on innocent bystanders getting harmed when criminal activities are taking place, I fully support the approaches of the police, but I think the assessment of strategies being put in place now should be assessed before November,” Wright said, in reference to a November assessment meeting mentioned by Murray-Brown.

He issued a call for the full cooperation of the Hopewell community with the police in their efforts to keep the community safe.