By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter

POLICE FEDERATION Chairman, Sergeant David White, says he will be lobbying for rank and file members of Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to be freed from policing areas he described as 'zinc fence communities', informal settlements and gully banks.

According to the 37-year-old police spokesman, those areas are too dangerous for the police, charging that a number of his colleagues have been shot and injured, some even killed, in those communities.

"These places depict where persons are at war. We were trained as peacemakers, we are not soldiers," said Sergeant White.

"It makes our job more stressful and dangerous."

Citing Shelter Rock in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, as an example, the Police Federation chairman said the Government must provide those communities with proper infrastructure so they can be policed.

The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) provides assistance to the police on operational duties, whenever the request is made.

POLICING POWERS TO SOLDIERS

More than a year ago legislation was brought before the House of Representatives to give policing powers to soldiers.

The opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) refused to support the amendment to the Defence Act, which was also resisted by civil society groups.

That bill is still being debated.

If approved, it will give soldiers the authority to search premises and apprehend persons regardless of whether members of the police force are present.

The Police Federation chairman's comments on the dangers law enforcers face came on the heel's of concerns raised by police personnel about the deplorable conditions at the week-old command post set up at the problematic bus terminus in Spanish Town.

The post is located near a garbage skip, and the officers are forced to contend with flies, and dust from the rubbish heap and around the bus park.

In addition, there are no sanitary conveniences to facilitate women police nor their male colleagues.

The command post is a makeshift tent.