'We can't play politics with crime'

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

Senior Superintendent of Police Anthony Castelle, the man in the hot seat in the scorching St Catherine North Division, has dismissed suggestions that crime data for the area may have been rigged between 2010 and 2011.

Violence-prone Spanish Town is the hub of this division.

Shooting down the claims of cynics in some political quarters that the guns in Spanish Town had never ceased to bark and residents never ceased to die in 2011, Castelle asserted that there was no benefit in concealing the crime figures.

"There is no way, especially for murders, that we could hide the figures because a murder is recorded immediately as it occurs. So it is impossible to suppress, especially murders and shootings," he stressed. "And it would be to the detriment of any divisional commander to mislead the public. No sir! That's a no-no."

Castelle also cautioned against "playing politics in dealing with crime when unity was needed to tackle the problem". He emphasised, "If we continue to play politics in every regard, then we won't reach anywhere."

guns barking again

These days, all eyes are trained on Castelle as head of the St Catherine North Police Division. The guns have again begun their incessant, terrifying bark in Spanish Town.

Castelle believes that this is the trigger effect of socio-economic woes hitting the poor in Spanish Town and the island as a whole.

"Don't say in Spanish Town, say in Jamaica," he declared when asked about the cause of the rampant crime in Spanish Town. "I don't know that crime is rampant. It's just that there are some crimes that are more rampant than others," he argued. "There are break-ins and robbery."

He stressed that the people of Spanish Town and, by extension, Jamaica have been under attack by an unprecedented level of hopelessness, caused by the worldwide economic onslaught. Castelle said the ripple effects in Jamaica have stolen jobs from the people of Jamaica. "With that has gone hope … necessity is the mother of invention," he said.

"I think it boils down to a lack of employment, the breakdown of the social fabric, everything … it has always been there, but it is more noticeable based on the fact a number of persons have lost jobs, the world crisis is taking its effect; it is something that we can't get away from," he asserted.

"The facts are there, less jobs than before and if you don't have jobs then what will people be doing? They will be thinking of how to survive … . That's why you have so many crimes being orchestrated.

The senior police officer is not convinced that policing by itself will shoot down the problems that have surfaced with a vengeance.

firing range

From bus parks to residential communities - nowhere is spared. Spanish Town and its environs continue to be a veritable firing range.

Castelle is firmly of the view that much more than policing needs to be done to arrest the all-pervasive lawlessness in Spanish Town and its environs.

Asked if there were adequate crime-fighting personnel to fight the uncontrolled criminality, Castelle hardly seemed worried, declaring he was not overwhelmed by the challenges. He told The Sunday Gleaner that the division benefits from outside assistance whenever the situation warrants.

"The division will never be self-sufficient or self-reliant.What we get on a daily basis is dependent on the needs of the area," he said.

Castelle noted that the additional support comes from the Mobile Reserves, the Jamaica Defence Force and the Motorised Patrol. "This is especially so when we have high activities like now. We have a lot of support coming from the other formations, but Spanish Town has always been like this. The support comes whenever the need arises," he said.

gary.spaulding@gleanerjm.com