By Francine Black, Staff Reporter
Sergeant Stephanie Lindsay-Clarke (left) accepts her certificate from Senior Superintendent Mary Royes-Henry, commandant at the Jamaica Police Academy at the graduation ceremony of the 'Safe Encounters for Police' training session at the Medallion Hall Hotel at the intersection of Hope and Lady Musgrave roads in St. Andrew on Friday. Forty-three officers graduated. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
POLICE COMMUNITY relations in Jamaica are set to benefit from the graduation of 43 police officers completing a new course dubbed 'Safe Encounters In Policing'.
In 2001, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) submitted a report after it completed a study of the Jamaica's crime situation. The study recommended 83 solutions in dealing with crime in Kingston and St. Andrew, where most of the island's crimes are committed. The training session was one of the recommendations.
Police officers were trained to use less force in handling routine police situations while ensuring their safety. The training, which took the form of lectures and mostly practical presentations, gave instruction in dealing with handcuffing, vehicle stops, burglaries and other routine encounters.
Five officers associated with PERF, a Washington D.C.-based organisation, led the officers through two weeks of rigourous training.
"I should like to challenge the participants of this course to return to the stations and communities that they are assigned to and endeavour to be ambassadors for the community policing programme by contributing positively to the partnership which we seek with community members," said Deputy Commis-sioner Tilford Johnson.
AIM TO ERADICATE CRIME
He described the project as one that will go a significant way towards eradicating crime in Jamaica. He also charged the graduates to go out and teach their colleagues and practice the techniques in their policing activities.
Most of the graduates will return to the St. Andrew North Division where a community policing model is being set up in the Grants Pen community. Others will return to the Police Academy and their respective police stations to pass on their knowledge.
Another component of the programme has already started.
The American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) aided Grant's Pen community policing programme included training of the commanding officers. Both the commanding and assistant commanding officers recently returned from Boston, Massachusetts in the United States, where the Harvard University Department of Government conducted a training course in community policing techniques.
The overseas training programme and its local component will be ongoing as the aim is train all members of the police force to use less force in doing their jobs.
Next week, three other officers are scheduled to attend a PERF conference in San Diego, California, to exchange of ideas and hear presentations on community policing from officers across the United States.
The training programmes are also to be taken to the community to engender appreciation of the training. The residents of Grant's Pen are to be the first beneficiaries as they will participate in a training session focused on problem solving in the first week of December. Police officers, who graduated from this most recent session, will also participate in this session as well.
The Grant's Pen model programme, which kicked off in January, has been having significant impact on the community as there has been a reduction in crimes so far. Inspector Michael Simpson, assistant commanding officer of the Grant's Pen project, said there has been a drop in homicides this year as there have been only six in the area since the start of the year.
