Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Persons gather to take part in the grand opening of the Grants Pen Police Station in St. Andrew yesterday. - IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
GOVERNMENT HOPES that yesterday's opening of a model police station and community complex in Grants Pen, St. Andrew, can be replicated across Jamaica.
Speaking at the opening of the Model Community Policing and Services Centre and the new Edna Manley Health Centre at 35 Grants Pen Road, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said Cabinet had approved the construction of similar complexes, given the availability of suitable donors.
PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTOR DONORS
The complex was constructed following lobbying from the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), which attracted private and public sector donors, as well as involving United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which invested US$3.5 million in the Grants Pen Community Policing Initiative.
USAID is currently scouting other locations in Jamaica for new community policing projects.
"There are tremendous developmental benefits that can be arrived at if the model can be replicated in other communities," said Mr. Patterson.
Appealing directly to his audience, which included representatives of the private sector, donor agencies and the diplomatic community, he added: "I hope that this is a challenge, a gauntlet that I am throwing down, and I hope our partners are hearing us!"
The police station, together with its on-site health centre, post office, Internet cafe, Paymaster outlet and automated teller machine, besides funding from the U.S. and Jamaican governments, was built with private sector funding, including $50 million from the National Commercial Bank (NCB). Minister of Health John Junor said the health centre, built with $74.5 million from the National Health Fund (NHF), was the first to be financed by the fund.
Successive speakers thanked AMCHAM Executive Director, Becky Stockhausen, who commissioned the community policing expertise of the Washington-based Police Executive Forum (PERF) to conduct a report into Jamaica's crime situation. The report, published in 2001, suggested the construction of a model police station to improve the physical environment and police-community relations in a given community. PERF were then employed by USAID to conduct the Community Policing Initiative.
"We set out to build a model police station and, as you can see we built a lot more," said Mrs. Stockhausen of lobbying efforts, which including persuading the U.S. Congress to change its law to allow USAID to work directly with foreign police forces. With Jamaica as a precedent USAID is now repeating similar community policing partnerships worldwide, said U.S. Ambassador Brenda LaGrange Johnson.
