Police Commissioner Owen Ellington has endorsed the community safety project being executed by the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme.

The project, titled: Enhancing Civil Participation and Local Governance for Community Safety, is a two-year initiative, which seeks to take a citizen-security approach to developing sustainable long-term strategies that focus on improved partnerships between civil society, local authorities, and central state agencies. The objective is to prevent and mitigate the effects of crime and violence through establishment of proposed parish safety and security committees, among other things.

key partners

Speaking at a parish safety and security workshop, organised by the Ministry, at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston recently, Ellington said the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) recognised that local authorities are 'very key partners' with whom they must work, in order to ensure community safety and security.

Against this background, he said the JCF had undertaken "much effort" to engage these stakeholders in partnerships "so that our work will complement the work they do", and create an "environment which is conducive to proper public security and public safety".

He said that among the strategic priorities of the JCF is the restoration of public security and confidence by promoting a community-based policing strategy predicated on building and maintaining partnerships through mutual respect and understanding.

"And, to this end, we have been engaging several stakeholders; community groups, the churches, the schools, youth groups, and certain very critical industries. In fact, in the last year, we signed well over 300 partnership agreements with several of our critical stakeholders," the commissioner said.

The Enhancing Civil Participation and Local Governance for Community Safety project is being executed as a pilot in St Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, St. Mary, Trelawny and Westmoreland.