ST JAMES, Jamaica – Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake has announced that the Police High Command is looking at establishing a welfare branch for members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

“The least we can do is ensure that we take care of the well-being of these members when we put them out there,” the commissioner said.

Blake was quick to assure the cops that “we build out this welfare branch not to compete with the federation, but to entrench and institutionalise what exists by leveraging all the work that you have been doing as a federation.”

“The high command has no business shunning that responsibility,” he declared while noting that “we have to get it right.”

“We’re operating in an environment with limited resources. That means it makes no sense we throw resources from various angles at the same problem. We need to optimise. And the reason why I’m not saying much more in that light is that we have not yet determined the structure where we can plug into [the police] federation and with our welfare and wellness division that will become a branch,” Blake said.

“So we have not yet fully fleshed out what the branch of the welfare and wellness branch will look like. And it”s welfare and wellness…we want to incorporate everything,” he added.

He was speaking on the first of the two- day Jamaica Police Federation 81st Joint Central Conference at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort on Tuesday.