Erica Virtue, Staff Reporter
SOME 49 police officers trained in dispute resolution to counter a wave of domestic violence plaguing the country, are ready to be placed at police divisional headquarters islandwide, as soon as "office space" can be identified to house them.
According to Inspector Colville Webb, head of the Police Mediation Unit, the unit is trying to find space to house the officers, ideally at the police stations needing their services most.
"As soon as space is identified, the officers will be placed," he said last week.
Statistics from the police indicate that the newly-trained officers will have their hands full trying to curb the current trend, which has already seen 153 of the 428 murders since the beginning of the year being related to domestic disputes. That is in addition to 2,975 assault cases and 360 woundings.
It is a trend which has continued since 1995, which recorded 15,138 incidents of domestic assaults, including woundings. There were 255 murders, which accounted for 33 per cent of the 780 murders recorded that year.
In 1996, 188 cases or 20 per cent of the 925 murders resulted from domestic disputes; so too were the 14,280 assault cases and 1,321 woundings.
In 1997, the picture was almost the same, as 21 per cent or 216 of the 1,038 murders were related to domestic disputes. Additionally, there were 13,136, cases of assaults and 1,297 cases of woundings.
Kingston, St. Catherine and St. Andrew have consistently recorded the highest number of domestic related murders. Of the 226 domestic murders in 1999, those three parishes accounted for 134.
Inspector Webb, believes that despite the figures, without the assistance of the police the numbers would have been higher.
"The intervention of the police, can prevent a crime," he said, adding that the attitude that "we (police) are not getting involved because 'this is man and woman business' is a thing (saying) of the past."
The police do not claim to know everything or to have the solution to every problem, he said, but they will be working with other community-based organisations to work out issues.
The Mediation Unit, which is part of the Police's Community Relations Programme, will draw on the resources of organisations such as the police youth clubs, community consultative committees and neighbourhood watch programmes.
The 19 officers already in the system were boosted by the graduation of 30 others who completed a two-week training programme this year.
The trained officers will train other police personnel and individuals such as justices of the peace, in an effort that will eventually decentralise the unit to make it more accessible to persons in rural Jamaica.
It will also become compulsory for police officers to be given training in dispute resolution after completing their two-year, on-the-road training in general policing after returning to training school.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Security and Justice Information Officer Shirley Byfield said her office was unaware that there was a need for "space to accommodate the police officers, which should ideally be at the station."
