Non-geographic police personnel being engaged to shore-up the number of boots on the ground

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) says adequate security personnel will be deployed during the busy Christmas period to ensure the safety and security of citizens.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary McKenzie promised that police personnel will be out in their numbers to enforce the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA) and maintain public order, as Jamaicans get ready to celebrate the Yuletide season.

Addressing a Jamaica Information Service Think Tank this past week, McKenzie, who heads the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch of the police force explained that non-geographic personnel, meaning those who do not operate in divisions, will be engaged at this time of the year to shore-up the number of boots on the ground.

According to the senior cop, “in our plans and activities as police officers, we generally put more persons on the roadways and … we ask many of our officers who do administrative work to be out on the streets to complement the police officers who are already on operational activities. For example, when we look at Narcotics, the Criminal Investigation Branch, they are engaged and there is an extra effort to have police officers out there on duty.”

Heightened security concerns at banks and other commercial areas

McKenzie said the JCF anticipates heightened security concerns at banks and other commercial areas where there is increased exchange of cash, goods, and services, and will ensure that the areas are saturated with police personnel.

Measures are also being put in place to address the expected increase in vehicular traffic on the roadways, which can lead to accidents.

“What we do is to ensure that there is more presence from traffic officers, from highway patrol, and we do a lot of speed checks. We know that it is happy season and persons tend to drink a little more and so our breathalyser enforcement activities are also heightened. We enforce this by ensuring that we are occupying our main and arterial roads and we carry out our breathalyser checks,” McKenzie said.

He is encouraging persons to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols, appealing to persons, as they move around to keep their distance of six-feet and wear their masks.