Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
Delroy Chuck (left), Member of Parliament for the St. Andrew North East constituency, tours the Grants Pen Police Station and health centre now under construction with Commissioner of Police Lucius Thomas (centre), and Dr. Peter Phillips, Minister of National Security, yesterday. - IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
PLANS ARE under way to replicate the community policing model at the new Grants Pen Police Station in St. Andrew in eight other crime-plagued inner-city communities.
Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas disclosed this yesterday while on a tour of the facility now under construction. "I have been told by USAID that they are looking at some other communities across Jamaica. Not probably in this form but modelled off this in some way, where we can bring back some sanity to communities," Mr. Thomas told The Gleaner.
The facility is the first of its kind to be established in Jamaica, as it not only houses a police station but also a health centre, postal service, an Internet café and ATM machine. The facility was conceived out of recommendations from the United States-based Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) report of 2001.
AN IMPACT ON REDUCING CRIME
Commissioner Thomas said he is convinced that the facility will have an impact on the reduction in crime because it forces both the community and police to work together. "I don't make predictions about crime because we don't control them but the initiatives that we have on the ground and with this, what we always ask for, community and police working together - you must see a downturn in crime," he said.
Already some 70 policemen and women are being trained for the facility which is being built to accommodate 100 police personnel.
Commissioner Thomas also described the facility as a "dream of the JCF working in partnership with communities."
Meanwhile, Minister of National Security Dr. Peter Phillips said that the facility is an extraordinary project as it involved the Government, the community, the private sector and the United States.
The construction of the facility is being spearheaded by the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) and is to be completed by mid-September. Some 20 local private sector companies have contributed $120 million to the project.
