Cops build relationship with St Catherine communities through schools

Seeking to foster good police-community relations, law enforcement personnel from several rural stations in the St Catherine North Police Division recently instituted an open house policy that has engaged the communities via schools.

Superintendent Hopeton Nicholson, head of the division, said that, during Police Week, which ended November 29, the aim was to reach the students in the communities.

According to Nicholson, the interactions saw leadership of stations within the division engage several schools with messages of inclusion.

“The objective is to educate the public, especially the youth, on the various available services we [the police] offer, which allow them to see it as a career choice and from all indications it was well received,” Nicholson said.

Teams visited the Guy’s Hill Primary School, where Sergeant Kenneth McTavish engaged the students on police procedures and operation and the laws covering various crimes.

“We provided information on the various records used at the station, informed on how one operates each station and educated them on when the first female member enlisted in the Jamaica Constabulary Force and other relevant information,which was well-received,” McTavish said.

Sergeant Zanu Thompson, subofficer of the Sligoville Police Station, educated the students of the Sligoville Primary School on the Electronic Traffic Ticketing device and its operation.

The use of ballistic vests and other protective tools used by the police was also outlined to the students who gathered.

At the same time, students of the Guanaboa Vale Primary School were educated by Sergeant Novelette Davis-Leachman of the Guanaboa Vale Police Station.

The consensus was that the partnership, held under the theme ‘Transforming the Present, Securing the Future’, was a welcome gesture.

editorial@gleanerjm.com