By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
Lee
AS THE police move to apprehend the main players of the rival gangs operating in the hotbed of Spanish Town, St. Catherine, provisions are being made to shelter potential witnesses under the Witness Protection Programme.
"Most times the police are aware of who the perpetrators of crimes are, but when we get out there and arrest them, the witnesses are not coming forward and the accused persons have to be released," Deputy Superintendent Bertram Lee told The Gleaner Editors' Forum on Thursday.
He stressed that the police were collectively trying to take back the communities from the dons, using their intelligence apparatus to get to the leaders and members.
And, if it means offering protection to entire families, the police are prepared to do it, the policeman said.
"Witnesses and their families will be relocated away from the community," said Mr. Lee.
According to information coming out of Thursday's Editors' Forum, the gangs in Spanish Town have instituted their own system of government, where anybody who breach the laws imposed by them are disciplined by being shot.
Cases of robberies are reported to the dons, who within a short time, retrieve and return the loot.
GETTING THE CO-OPERATION
"We are getting the co-operation from the people, but we need more now. We need to get some evidence," said DSP Lee. "We are trying to do our best with scientific evidence, but that goes so far and no more."
He said the lawmen through their various programmes, will be reaching out to the citizens of Spanish Town, reassuring persons who may have witnessed serious crimes committed that they would be safe under the revamped Witness Protection Programme.
The programme introduced by the Government in the latter 1980s has been successful, according to reports.
Former National Security Minister K.D. Knight had pointed out that between 1997 and June 2000, evidence provided by witnesses under the programme has resulted in some 60 convictions of criminals in serious charges, 60 death sentences, 32 life sentences, and 22 other prison sentences.
Pointing to aspects of the National Crime Initiatives launched in December 2002, Superintendent Lee said the police will be making snap visits to particular schools, and continue patrols at the bus terminus, over which the rival gangs have been fighting to gain control.
