COMMUNITY POLICE officers were in Gall Hill, Christ Church, yesterday as the police’s community programme kicked off.
This stemmed from a recent media conference by Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin, who said community engagement was a part of the way forward for the police.
Several teams from the southern division, led by neighbourhood policing officer for the southern region, Inspector Trevor Blackman,walked through the area and spoke with residents.
“Our purpose is to speak to members of the community to get a sense of their feelings and needs,” he said.
Blackman said he recognised the need for recreational facilities in the area, as Gall Hill has long been known for its football skills.
“Part of the problem is if people want to engage in such [sporting] activities, they have to go elsewhere.
“We want to be in a position where residents of Gall Hill can return to normalcy; we want to get to the roots of the problems and the community has an integral role in providing solutions,” he said.
One of the more animated residents, who would only give his name as “Escobar”, said the major problem was the inability to find work after spending time in prison.
He said just sitting on the block doing nothing “played with your mind”, and with children to feed, sometimes the only resort was to return to a life of crime.
Another resident argued crime was a state of mind and had nothing to do with smoking marijuana. She said she herself used the drug on a regular basis, but never had any inclination to harm anyone. (CA)
