Police pledge to occupy crime hotspots

The Police Commissioner Owen Ellington says law enforcement officers are turning up the pressure on criminals and the strategy will be intensified when the police and the military take up permanent occupancy in crime hotbeds like Gravel Heights in Spanish Town, St Catherine and Tucker in St James.

Speaking at a special post Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Ellington said there are currently 42 active gang conflicts in as many as nine police divisions which have increased the potential for crimes, particularly murders.

“The police and military resources are concentrated on trying to contain these gang conflicts,” Ellington said while urging people of Gravel Heights who have fled the community to return.

“I’m urging people who have fled because of violence to return because we are going to be there for as long as ever” he said.

In the meantime, Ellington said the police are trying to deny the movement of gang members across the island while tracking them to be arrested outside of their criminal enclaves.

According to the Commissioner, yesterday, the police detained 60 people including wanted men from St Catherine.

At the same press conference this morning, the national security minister Peter Bunting reported that 165 people have been murdered since the start of the year.
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