Bullets&Blood

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• • gleanerjamaica • jamaicagleaner • BULLETS & BLOOD THE GLEANER, TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2016 D7
THEY COME into the
island in barrels, appli-
ances, metal containers,
and on rickety vessels
across the Caribbean
Sea, but once the illegal
guns make it onshore, it is up to local
law enforcement to track them down
and retrieve them from desperate gangs
and gunmen who live by them.
Getting the guns can cost members of
the security forces their own lives and
the lives of their families, even as they
try to save the lives of citizens.
It is not an easy task, but there is
nothing like the boost in morale and the
sense of purpose officers feel when
they ‘bingo’, especially in divisions
haunted by the sound of high-powered
rifles and wanton bloodletting.
“The police take great joy in finding
these weapons. It acts as a motivation
for them, because they see themselves
as accomplishing something,” said
Assistant Commissioner of Police
Ealan Powell.
“The more guns you take off the
street, the greater impact it is going to
have on your crime reduction strategy.
Most of our murders are being commit-
ted with guns, and in places like St
James, Clarendon and Westmoreland.
In excess of 90 per cent of their mur-
ders are committed with the use of
guns,” said Powell.
“Gun is a real serious problem for
them. So the policemen relish the fact
that they can find guns and at least we
see that as saving lives,” he said.
Each police division must secure a
minimum of five guns each month in
order to qualify for a cash incentive as
part of the recently launched Get the
Guns Campaign by the police commis-
sioner. The division that removes the
most guns from the streets per month
wins.
“In April, is we top it,” bragged
Superintendent Howard Chambers,
head of the Kingston West Police
Division, which comprises several vio-
lence-plagued communities, such as
Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town.
Chambers said that his officers revel
in the friendly competition to seize ille-
gal firearms.
“It plays out even at the micro level
in that if one unit, ‘Alpha Team’, find a
gun today, when ‘Bravo Team’ come on
in the night and hear that, Bravo will
get jealous and want to find one, too.
And then ‘Charlie Team’ the next day
want to find theirs,” said Chambers.
“Especially if everybody go neck and
neck, everybody is in a heated compe-
tition to make sure that they finish the
month with the most. So you definitely
see the boost in energy,” he said, not-
ing that most of the guns seized in his
division are taken from individuals’
possession.
A senior officer at the Divisional
Intelligence Unit (DIU) at the Kingston
East Police Division, who declined to
be named, said that even between divi-
sional DIU units, the competition to
find illegal guns is strong.
“From DIU to DIU, we communi-
cate. So once one DIU come out and
say them find a gun, then we are
going to say, ‘What? Den mi have to
go find my own for this week, too,
then.’ So that pushes us to go out and
do more intelligence gathering to help
create operations to boost morale,” he
said.
‘THE MORE GUNS OFF
THE STREET, THE
GREATER IMPACT ON
CRIME REDUCTION’
Police statistics show that guns accounted
for 70 per cent of the just over 2,200
persons reported killed in Jamaica over
the last two years. = 100 persons
killed by gun
violence
= 100 persons
killed by other
means
Gun and ammunition
recovered by police
in 2016.
FILE
Sergeant Peter Salkey shows
one of two illegal weapons and
ammunition seized in Mount
Salem, St James, in 2013.