- RUDOLPH BROWN/Chief Photographer
Minister of National Security Dr. Peter Phillips (left) view the model police facility at the ground- breaking ceremony for the Grants Pen Community Policing and Health Facility at the site of the Edna Manley Clinic, 35 Grants Pen Road, yesterday. In background from left are Patrick Hylton, managing director, National Commercial Bank, Chuck Wexler, executive director of PERF, and Delroy Chuck, Member of Parliament for St. Andrew North East.
GROUND WAS broken yesterday for the construction of a multimillion-dollar community police and health facility at Grants Pen, Kingston 8, with completion set for late July, 2005.
The facility, which was born out of recommendations from the United States-based Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) report of 2001, will comprise a health centre, police station, postal service, an ATM machine, a facility to pay bills and community meeting rooms.
Becky Stockhausen, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), who has been instrumental in garnering funds to construct the facility, said the station was designed in a special way to improve the relationship between the community and the police.
"Not only have we brought an opportunity for them to interact with the police but we are giving them some security where they will be able to very easily pass information with just one sentence," she said.
PLEDGES, KIND
The executive director said that the facility would cost $165 million but that only $120 million in pledges and kind have been raised so far. The fund-raising initiative has been bolstered by a $50 million contribution made by the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and the National Health Fund (NHF), which has contributed $45 million, along with other donors from the private sector.
Francis Forbes, Commissioner of Police, said the police station at Grants Pen was a pilot and will help to formalise an element of community policing.
To date, 30 police officers have been trained to work at the station which will have a full complement of 100 officers who will only work an eight-hour shift.
"Already we have trained approximately 30 or so, we intend to continue this process until we have 100 good officers who are carefully vetted and specially trained to work in Grants Pen," Forbes said.
Meanwhile, residents of Grants Pen, a volatile inner-city community in North East St. Andrew, expressed their happiness about the plans to build the facility. Marlene Lennon told The Gleaner that "What they plan to do is great. It will uplift the place and don't make it look like a ghetto anymore. (The police station) will keep down the crime a little."
