A BI-LATERAL community policing initiative between the Jamaican and London police is being fortified to stem crime and promote better community policing in both countries.
The initiative, which is focused on young people between the ages of 14-24 years old, from inner-city communities, is seeking to lessen involvement of young people in violent crimes by creating opportunity for them to become more actively involved in community policing, crime reduction and policy making on youth and security.
The inter-policing initiative, which is being spearheaded by the Jamaica Constabulary's Community Relations Depart-ment and the London Black Police Association, comes against the background of statistics published in a recent Situation Assessment Report from the Ministry of Local Government. The report, written by Dr. Gwendolyn Morgan and Dr. Christine Varga indicated that 31 per cent of all crime and violence arrests by the police were among youths aged 15-24. Among adolescents 10-19 years, 14 per cent of boys and 5 per cent of girls have reported either being stabbed or shot in a fight.
ACTIVITIES
As part of the activities to create a changed environment in these communities, the two policing agencies have been staging interactive group meetings, between youths from London and Jamaica, to get their participation in making decisions about better community policing programmes which can be put into place to give youth positive alternatives to crime. To this end, an international global technological link will be hosted on July 28, 2003 by both agencies to stimulate dialogue between the young people from London and Jamaica.
Senior Superintendent Linberg Simpson of the Community Relations Branch (CRB) of the Jamaica Constabulary Force expressed the Force's full support for the programme. "The high rate of youth as victims of crimes creates the necessity for the police to be involved. Our Community Relations Branch will be working to ensure that we get the involvement of our area commanders, specifically, because they are charged with the responsibility of briefing and sending police officers out into our communities to uphold the law and interact with citizens." This, he noted, would promote better interface between the police and the young people.
INTERFACE
The involvement of the Police Area Commanders in the programme will ensure greater interface between the youths and the officers directing modus operandi in their respective communities.
Senior Superintendent Simpson added that, the issues of patrol and approach to gathering intelligence will take priority during the discussions to be pursued during the global link up, specifically to allow the young people to make suggestions regarding better community policing.
The global link programme will also see the participation of police officers as mentors, role models and as professionals promoting policing as a profession of choice.
