$4.3 m spent to refurbish guardrooms at police stations
GOVERNMENT has so far spent $4.3 million to complete upgrading work on three of the six police station guardrooms that have been targeted for refurbishing under phase one of a United Kingdom-funded project.
The British Government had donated $28 million to refurbish police stations islandwide.
This initiative is part of the Service and Ethics component of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s five-year reform and modernisation programme.
Since the official opening of the first refurbished station at Half-Way-Tree in July 2001, upgrading work on the guardrooms at Constant Spring and Spanish Town stations have been completed. Work on the Hunts Bay Police Station is scheduled to commence before Christmas.
The refurbished guardrooms now boast attractive air-conditioned reception areas, cubicles, and separate rooms for collecting reports and statements and for interviewing suspects.
Project leader, Deputy Superintendent Lorna Wilson-Morgan of the Corporate Strategy Unit of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), told JIS News that members of the public were more comfortable in the refurbished areas, and the police could make more thorough investigations. In a private environment, they could ask suspects more probing questions, thereby arriving at better clues to solve crimes, she added.
She said that following site visits by a team of senior police officers, a prototype was established for the construction and redesigning of guardrooms and reception areas of the selected stations. From now on, she pointed out, police stations would be designed based on the Half-Way-Tree, Constant Spring and Spanish Town models.
The stations were selected for refurbishing based on their location, the size of the community they served, the service output and the number of persons who made reports daily.
Indicating her team’s commitment to improving the service that the police offered to the public, the deputy said “We cannot change the effectiveness of the force in delivering service, unless we examine our staff, where they work and how they deal with members of the public, regardless of their status or standing in the society,” said Wilson-Morgan.
On completion of the Hunts Bay Police Station, upgrading of the Mandeville Police Station will commence.