- RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
Deputy Superintendent of Police Norman Heywood (left), coordinator of the police component of the Safe Schools Programme, converses with police personnel involved in the programme. The occasion was the presentation of the findings of a survey which was conducted during the first year of the programme.
Gareth Manning, Freelance Writer
THE JAMAICA Constabulary Force (JCF) has partnered with a national youth arm to reduce youth involvement in crime.
Police statistics show that youth were responsible for most of the major crimes committed in 2005. One thousand seven hundred and ninety-six of the over 3,500 people arrested last year were between the ages of 12-25. One thousand seven hundred and seventy-two of them were male.
The constabulary force will be partnering with the National Youth Council of Jamaica (NYCJ) on a number of social programmes targeted at youth across Jamaica.
PARTNERSHIP FORMALISED
The partnership was formalised recently when the NYCJ paid a courtesy call on Commissioner Lucius Thomas to discuss the involvement of young people in the growing crime rate. The partners will be working with youth between the ages of 15-24.
As part of the initiative, the JCF will expand its Safe Schools Programme to include other schools across the island. The programme, which incorporates the placing of police officers in schools, is active in 100 schools in volatile communities across the corporate area.
The partners will also be working feverishly towards the implementation of the youth and safety welfare programme to reach at-risk youth. This programme will incorporate conflict resolution and skills training to reduce violence and other anti-social behavior.
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
"[We] are trying to meet with community persons to create an environment in the community that is favourable for the students and also help the other communities persons to be role models for them in order to lessen the crime and violence rate that they have in these communities and Jamaica on a whole," general secretary of the NYCJ Narvalee Robinson says.
NYCJ is yet to determine which of the programmes they will target first. However, Ms. Robinson says the decision must first be made at the parish level before the council can decide on what will be done first.
"As the core executive, we just don't make decisions and then put them out to the council. What we do is meet with them, take their input on it and work from there," she said.
