Murders on the decrease in Hanover
Published:Tuesday | May 14, 2024 | 12:05 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
With 19 murders committed in Hanover since the start of the year, lead personnel in the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Hanover Division are viewing that figure positively.
“We are looking at 19 (murders) now, 25 last year to date, and so there is a reduction,” shared Deputy Superintendent Angela McIntosh-Gayle, operations officer who took up duties in the parish on April 29.
“Notwithstanding the reduction, we have a challenge in the Green Island space. That is an area that has given us most of the murders,” she stated while tabling a report during the monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation.
Apart from the Green Island area, Mountpelier in the Sandy Bay division and places in the Chester Castle division are also known police hotspots within the parish.
Negative side of development
While arguing that development projects taking place within Hanover are providing needed work for a number of persons, McIntosh-Gayle noted that there was a negative side to the developments as they also attracted a number of migrating criminals.
“We are taking a holistic approach. We are looking at every angle in terms of reducing crime in the division. We know that the development projects help the economy because persons are getting jobs. But we also have a lot of migrant criminals turning up in the parish,” she opined.
She pleaded for law-abiding residents to work with the police towards curtailing criminal activities by providing information where and whenever necessary.
“When we go in the different areas we continue to find persons coming from St Mary, Portland, Clarendon, St Catherine, all over the place, and we are having a challenge,” she stated.
McIntosh-Gayle pointed out that she plans to incorporate all the agencies and organisations within the parish in aspects of her crime-fighting plan within the parish while appealing to persons in leadership positions across the parish to be prepared to assist the police.
“The police alone cannot fight crime. We can reduce crime if persons are coming forward to give information” she emphasised.