WINNING THE war against crime, extortion and corruption among public officials, were dominant themes in questions posed to Deputy Com-missioner of Police (DCP) Mark Shields in a Gleaner/Go-Jamaica online chat Thursday night.Curious Jamaicans here and abroad wanted to know how long the current crime rate would last, and what would be done next, to restore decency to public offices.
One person asked DCP Shields, who has been in the job a little over two months, what he aimed to do to lower the crime rate. Mr. Shields said the Jamaica Constabulary Force was implementing operations to focus on intelligence-led policing.
"So far, there has been some success in August Town and parts of Kingston eastern," he said. " However, we still have a long way to go. I am working with my senior detectives on a strategy to increase our clear-up rates for homicides."
Another participant in the one-hour chat which began at 6:00 p.m., recommended the installation of bullet-proof, ballistic closed-circuit television (CCTV) on the nation's streets, a similar move to what was recently done in New Orleans in the United States.
"I think CCTV is an effective crime-prevention and evidence-gathering tool," remarked DCP Shields who is on a four-year contract. "It has been used extensively in the U.S. and U.K. when witnesses were reluctant to come forward. It is good for us to rely on technology. The camera never lies!"
Some CCTV have been installed in sections of the Corporate Area.
Regarding the long delay in bringing criminals to justice, the deputy commissioner said laws were needed to swiftly seize finances and assets accumulated by organised criminals and 'dons'. He added that the police have made requests to the Government to fast-track such laws in Parliament.
Read the transcript of the
discussion on Go-jamaica.
Log on to www.go-jamaica.com/chat/ts_markshields.html
It will be listed under the heading Chat Tanscript at http://www.go-jamaica.com/chat/
