St Elizabeth police welcome additional officers

Inspector Everton Williams of the St Elizabeth police division says that the short-term placement of 20 additional officers will benefit the parish’s law enforcement activities.

Williams, who presented at Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation (StEMC) in the absence of Superintendent Coleridge Minto, police commander for the parish, noted that while the officers were not “permanent assets” as they were still (at) the training school, “any addition is a good addition for us, and they will be here into the Christmas period,” he said.

The inspector said that the police and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) have formed a partnership to carry out various operations throughout the parish up until year end.

“If you look around you would notice that we are traversing the roadways. We have had several police operations going on around here ... even into the wee hours of the morning,” he added.

He stated that in addition to the division’s strength, the presence of the 20 training officers was beneficial as the police were highly “cognisant of this time of the year, that it is close to the Yuletide season.”

REDUCTION IN MAJOR CRIMES

According to Williams’ report on the state of crime in the parish, there is a reduction of 89 in major crimes in the St Elizabeth division.

Nine of the 46 robberies that have occurred since the beginning of 2024 have been cleared and are in court. There have also been 27 murders recorded. Williams provided no report on shootings, breakings, rapes, arson, and aggravated assaults.

He continued that, since the start of the year 186 major crimes have been reported; of these, 47 cases have been cleared, and 24 crimes that had been reported in prior years have also been cleared, for a total of 71 cases cleared as opposed to 275 reported with 68 cleared up for the year 2023.

On the issue of fatal collisions, the division, Williams stated have so far experienced 25 motor vehicle accidents that has resulted in 23 fatalities.

In September, Superintendent Minto noted that since the start of the year 160 serious and violent crimes were reported in the division in comparison to the corresponding period of last year of 248.

This was a reduction of 88 or 35 per cent. The breakdown of serious crimes was as follows: shootings down by 29 per cent; robberies down by 41 per cent; break ins down by 46 per cent; rapes down by 15 per cent; aggravated assault down by 35 per cent; and the figure for murders was three more than last year.

He stated that the policing areas with the most murders were: Black River with six, Santa Cruz with five, Balaclava, Siloah and Junction all with three each, New Market with two and one reported for Maggotty.