Mark Titus, Enterprise Reporter

HENRY

The rugged spatial design of informal settlements in Clarendon is frustrating the efforts of law enforcers to implement community policing in crime-ridden areas of the parish, police told a Gleaner Editors' Forum in the parish on the weekend.

"Community policing has to be offered in planned communities, not unplanned communities," said Superintendent Dathan Henry, the straight-talking chief of the Clarendon police.

"We play and toy with the term 'community policing' but the men and criminals operating in these unplanned communities are extremely dangerous," he said.

Clarendon is one of 19 police divisions that were selected by the Jamaica Constabulary Force at the beginning of the year for phase one of its community-policing implementation.

Henry, who has been in command of the division for the last four months and is a former community-policing project manager, said the constabulary's concept of community policing does not allow it to be implemented effectively in informal communities.

High-powered weapons

"When they are walking in these communities that have zinc fences and lanes and you have criminal elements there with high-powered weapons, certainly, that is not an area or a condition that I would want to expose my community-policing officers to," Henry said.

He stated that the programme had been operating smoothly in planned communities such as Mineral Heights and Longville Park, but argued that he would be concerned for the safety of his men if the programme were to be extended to volatile informal communities in the parish.

He admits that the police have received intelligence on planned attacks on community-policing officers. It usually happens, he said, when police teams from outside the parish conduct an operation that leaves a resident dead or injured.

"People are incensed when any of these guys are killed because they are breadwinners, they are the Robin Hoods, and if the community police officer comes in there, they will kill them," he said.

Henry says in order for community policing to be successful in these communities, they need to be regularised and fitted with the necessary amenities.

Manage the areas

"Cut up the lots, put in roads, water and light and manage the development," Henry told The Gleaner.

Clarendon has 16 squatter settlements that contribute greatly to its crime problem. Their lack of amenities, such as proper roads and utilities, have made them safe havens for criminals.

There have been 83 murders in the parish capital May Pen and its environs, since January, and 59 incidents of shootings.

Gareth Manning contributed to this story.