St Bess police tackle vehicle shortage, rise in fatal domestic disputes

WESTERN BUREAU:

Deputy Superintendent Adrian Flemming, the head of operations in the St Elizabeth Police Division, has said that an inadequate number of police vehicles remain a challenge to cops in the parish,

He said a number of police stations are forced to continue sharing vehicles because there are not enough for each station to have at least one of their own.

Speaking at last Thursday’s meeting of the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation in Black River, Flemming said although the division has received additional vehicles since the passage of Hurricane Melissa, there are still not enough to meet demand.

Flemming made the revelation against the backdrop of an increase in interpersonal and domestic disputes, which have replaced gang conflicts as the leading causes for murders in the parish.

He told councillors that murders have more than doubled in the parish, rising from 10 at this time last year to the current 23 cases.

“The majority of the increase, the type of murders we are seeing are interpersonal, or what we would look at as domestic in nature,” said Flemming, stressing that the killings were not linked to organised criminal activity or gang feuds. “These are not murders from a criminal pandemic, which means that these are not gangs having a feud, these are not people going out to kill people.”

He said an analysis of the killings shows that many involved people who knew each other, including relatives, intimate partners, and friends.

DOMESTIC CASES

Among the cases he cited were a grandson allegedly killing his grandfather, a boyfriend killing his girlfriend, and brothers killing each other.

He said the nature of the killings makes them particularly difficult for the police to anticipate.

“A husband and wife living in their home – and those occasions happen – and the husband gets angry, or the wife gets angry, and they hurt each other. These are not easy things to track,” he said.

He said that in response, the police have increased interventions aimed at domestic violence and expanded community-based operations in areas identified as having high levels of such incidents.

“We really have to meet the people where they are. We have to go into the communities with various interventions,” Flemming said, while outlining that police personnel have been engaging residents to identify and address problems affecting communities.

Despite the spike in murders, the other categories of crimes are on the decline, which the police see as positive in their overall bid to blunt lawlessness.

Breaking and entering fell from 86 cases last year to 61 this year, rape declined from 17 to 12, aggravated assault dropped from 21 to 12, while larceny declined from 17 to eight.

Flemming also reported increased police preparations for the new school term, including the training of new school resource officers and increased police presence at transportation centres and other locations where students gather.

“You’ll recognise that you’ll see a high presence of the police in the different places, ensuring that our students are not only leaving home but they’re actually going to school,” he said.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com