St. James police say rolling use of SOEs reaping success

By Nakinskie Robinson   

 

Superintendent in charge of Operations in St. James, Eron Samuels, has lauded as successful, the use of States of Public Emergency in St. James.

 

An SOE was initially imposed on November 8 in response to the increased gang violence and the killing of two children in Salt Spring.

 

The measure has since been reimposed every two weeks since.

 

Superintendent Samuels noted that despite challenges with curbing crime, the continued imposition of the SOE has made the situation manageable in one of the country's hot spots. 

 

"We have been reaping some successes up to the weekend passed where we had an increase, an uptick in murders in some areas that were not previously active. Now, as usual, we have pulled ourselves together and ensured that we got things under control. We have some of the main players in custody and we have had some successes in recent incidents as well in terms of convictions, persons pleading guilty to incidents based on video footage, etc.," he reported during Thursday's meeting of the St. James Municipal Corporation.

 

Superintendent Samuels said the parish is still on track to record a reduced homicide rate for this year.

 

He sought to assure residents that there will be increased police presence during the festive season. 

 

"We are looking to go into the Christmas/Yuletide season with a little bit more assistance coming from headquarters in Kingston. We should see a lot more police officers, especially motorcyclists on the streets. We will be pulling persons out of our administrative roles and putting them in operational roles," he disclosed.