FORCE4GOOD Podcast: S2: EP5 - Educate, Empower & Enforce: The St. Catherine North Policing Approach

Greetings and welcome to the Force for Good podcast. I'm Dennis Brooks, senior superintendent of police at the Constabulary Communications Network. For the next few weeks, we will take you into the operational heart of Area 5, a command that has seen a major reduction in crimes in the first quarter of 2026. Now, today, we are zooming in on one of the most dynamic and complex policing spaces in the island, St. Catherine North Division. From the bustling commercial spaces like Spanish Town to rural communities like Sligoville, policing this terrain requires sharp strategy, dedication, and teamwork. Joining us today is head of Area 5, Assistant Commissioner of Police Howard Chambers, and head of the St. Catherine North Division, Senior Superintendent of Police Horton Nicholson. Gentlemen, welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh ACP Chambers, let's begin with kind of understanding Police Area 5. It covers all of St. Catherine. It comes across into um St. Andrew North, and it touches St. Thomas. Four very different divisions, but is there an overarching roadmap that you utilize to police it? Right. Um as you have said, um four um different divisions with their own um unique traits, um so to speak. Uh St. Catherine uh as close as St. Catherine North and St. Catherine South are together, have different um culture, um so to speak, and um you know, different traits. Uh St. Andrew North, um just the same as St. Thomas. Uh St. Catherine North, as I have said before, it's it's it's probably one of the most unique out of the other divisions because the you have to command uh rural, deep rural, and you have to command um urban. So, it's it's a multi- multi-faceted approach. Since the start of of the year, uh in command of uh Area 5, uh having done the analysis and see where we have most of the problems, uh we decided that we will pretty much, in terms of our concept of operations, uh uh ask of all four divisions to uh take these, uh what I call, four lines of effort, uh four lines of approach. Um to take charge of their town centers, uh especially. So, so so we decided that public order enforcement is very important. Mhm. Um so, all divisions um of Area 5 uh high on that in terms of ensuring that their main corridors and their town centers, we call them town centers, are vital, you know, it's very important that town centers are policed, uh road and clock, and orders are maintained in the town centers. Uh hotspot controlling is the next line of effort. Uh all the divisions of Area 5 have areas that are volatile um from time to time. In particular, St. Catherine North would have even most um um um more areas than the the other areas. It's more more communities that are uh from time to time what we call uh volatile hotspot areas. So, we we ensure that we keep our fingers on the pulse uh with respect to these areas, you know, for for for these areas, we ensure that, you know, we have what we call strategic road and clock deployment, um presence, occupation of spaces um in these areas. Uh the next line of effort is is that of anti-gang initiatives and and pursuit of Irish targets. Uh All the divisions of Area 5 of gangs and by no means we can ignore that element. And so, we have the specialized teams in the areas and you know, and the intel component and you know, the combination of hubs and savvy, you know, always in pursuit to to displace you know, these criminals and and capture these wanted persons. Uh the the the last one is probably the most important. Uh the line of effort of and that is community engagement. Uh it's very important because we believe in order to sustained whatever gains from the line of effort 1 2 and 3, then it will be community engagement. Building trust and partnership with the communities of these divisions. And I must say that my commanders, you know, they are very very high you know, in building you know, these sustainable partnership with the communities of the area. In Area 5 we we we don't believe in policing the people. We believe in policing with the people. So, everything we do ensure that we communicate and we engage the citizens and let them know what we have been doing. And and and also, you know, get their suggestion in policing with the people. Mhm. You again, you're no stranger to Area 5. You've been a commander there. We were a commander there for a good stretch. When you returned to Area 5 as the Area Commander, I mean, what maybe one of the hallmarks from the outside of your leadership style is very team oriented. Everywhere we see you, we see with your entire Area team. And so, there's a a feeling of the Area Crime Officer is very or the area ups officer's very involved and leading from an area approach. How important is that team structure, that unified approach um going forward? important. Uh and you know, that's you know, that's a style of leadership that you would have commanders of your five emulate and follow, you know, we we believe in servant, you know, servant leadership, you know, that all inclusiveness of of of of team members. And so, um you know, automatically when I said all the commanders were on board and we have our mantras, one team, you know, one dream. Uh meaning you know, we want to move in a united um unifying um effort. Uh we want to ensure that uh none of the leaders or managers are not in sync, you know, we have to ensure that they're in sync with with our targets and our objectives and everybody um playing their role. Uh and and and so, with with uh with as the as the commander in officer for year five, I ensure that that those don't tolerate you know, we demonstrate that. And so, even at the year of five level management level, whenever we're doing simple thing like a visit or walk through, all my commanders have to be on board, you know, we're doing inspection or walk, you know, I mean, even at this interview, probably some of my commanders are outside waiting because we move, you know, in that that one one one line of effort and you know, one team, one uh one dream. Uh one dream meaning that all the divisions of year five, we have a mandate and and and and the ultimate mandate is to ensure that we build, you know, more resilient communities, safer communities. And so, you know, we just we we we look at the yearly target, but we know, you know, in the foresee future, two, three years, you know, that's that's that's really or or or or mandate or target as command at so that is that is really the the one dream concept. So, it's it's it's it wasn't hard as I said before because even when I was commanding officer for St. Catherine North, that's the concept we ensure that, you know, the the juniors see the managers moving in that one one effort, one accord, one team effort. Right, so is this B. Nicholson you are, as we said, in a in a very dynamic division. It has certain historic challenges that are deep rooted in the one would say the subculture. There's a almost a subculture in in this space. You know it well. How have you gone about changing the profile of St. Catherine North that, especially from an anti-gang perspective, the landscape has changed drastically under your leadership. All right, thank you. The one of the initiatives that we focus on in St. Catherine North is actually the ability to degrade and disrupt young activities. Um we do a lot of public education and we ensure that in our in our stakeholder engagement, you know, schools, in our various community meetings that we let the citizens be aware of what we are about and how we are going to achieve our expected results with their cooperation. Or no, in pursuing anti-gang initiatives, we use tools to take the profit out of crime. Proceeds of Crime Act, POCA. We use the Law Reform Fraudulent Transaction Act, properly known as popularly known as the lottery scam legislation. We also use the Criminal Suppression Act, properly known as the anti-gang legislation. And we use these to ensure that persons who fall in the category of a gang, they will have to answer to the powers that be. No, I think we are at a point where we are saying Catherine the citizens of St. Catherine now, they are intolerable of the kind of criminal activity as you described historically. And realize that St. Catherine though strategically located in the center of the island, where so many transient persons traverse daily, realize that listen, it is one a place that business can strive, where people can go about conducting lawful business, and citizens can just live in a very peaceful way. So, I think St. Catherine is a right for business, and I think we are at a point where the citizens and the police are working together to ensure that not just gangs, but criminal activities, the opportunities for criminals have been significantly reduced, and we we hope to continue that trend. The ACP mentioned for instance management of town centers, and for years Spanish Town proper was seen as almost unmanageable. Um, you know, the bus park, the terminus area, you know, going down past St. Jago Plaza, going towards the hospital. There are, you know, people who have long-standing fears of those places that you almost give up on it because extortion has taken over, people would have said in the past. Um now I mean, I'm not saying it's perfect, but what you hear on the ground is that things have significantly changed in those spaces. I mean, operationally, how have you managed to What are some of the things that you can share, for instance, that that in terms of taking back those spaces, those corridors, um a town center like Spanish Town? Right. Um one of the things that we do in St. Catherine North, we have a multi-agency public education um walk-through. We have done that on many occasions where we have operatives from the municipal corporation, from the Betting, Gaming, and Lotteries Commission, from the Transport Authority, National Solid Waste Management Authority, and we do a lot of walk-throughs to um conduct public education. Now, we have our We engage the businesses through the Chamber of Commerce. We engage the transport operators. We engage most of the persons who have influence. And we do public education. Now, our enforcement, we do a lot of that with the Transport Authority, as well as our investigative teams. So, we we first we warn, but then we will have to enforce. We educate, we empower, we um and then we will enforce, and we try to do so in a very gracious way where citizens' rights are respected. And I think majority of citizens are buying into the um the the the new way of thinking and the new way of doing things in and around Spanish Town. We also use technology. It's no secret that we have the town um we have a good advantage point to view the town using technology, and that has aided us in identifying some areas that we require to have um specific deployment at certain time of the day. And that has worked well for us. So, the multi-agency approach, the public education, the enforcement, and this is multi-agency enforcement, as well as the use of technology to monitor the town center. I think those are some of the the the areas in which we have um have helped to get the improvement that we have seen in Spanish Town. And we hope for to improve some more. ACP, one of the things that um he he's alluding to then, or or not even alluding to, saying directly that this is not just a policing thing. And one of the hallmarks of your leadership is partnership. Um recently I was I attended a stakeholder engagement that that you had. And stakeholders from all over the area were were there. It is so important, if you're going to win Spanish Town, not just from a violence perspective, but just being able to traverse the space and have order, and people are not vending everywhere, and chaos, whether it's Spanish Town or Linstead or other some of the other major towns. How important is winning the stakeholder relationships? Very very very important. And and um as as uh SSP Nicholas uh just said, I just want to piggyback quickly on the the the the impact on the use of technology. Um for Spanish Town, I think we have some of the you know, more you know, proactive Jamaica ICC, you know, TV operators. You know, they are very analytical. Uh not just um just those view cameras. They they pretty much record anything that is out of the norm. And and elevate it as quick as possible. So, that the the up operatives on the ground, the police personnel on the ground, can can be proactive just the same. But does that does that translate very quickly to increase clear up or prevention? Prevention. You know, there's a lot of prevention. I I I remember when I I was um commanding officer for St. Catherine North. There's a there's a success story there. Um for the Jamaica eye CCTV where uh we have we had been having a increase uh increased cases of larceny of motor vehicle in in the town center. Cuz it's parked in a vehicle. And you know, two hours when they come back missing and stolen. Uh and they uh so so there's this particular situation where from the this the plaza particular plaza in the town center where over uh 3-week period, two vehicles um stolen from it. The Jamaica eye uh camera system is not on the plaza um compound. However, um we had a camera that was is positioned on the main corridor. That's the March Pen Road. So, what the Jamaica eye CCTV operators did was to rotate that camera and and keep it fixed in the parking lot of the plaza and keep watching. They realized also that every time a a vehicle is stolen, when they look at back at the history, there was a What do they call it? Um Toyota Tourings um van exiting uh March Pen March Pen Road going into Portmore direction. And so, they flagged that um license plate flagged it. Um so, that whenever that vehicle comes back in the area, they will be able to So, the alarm will go off and they will be able to look what is happening. So said, then uh 2 weeks after that, alarm went off. They saw the vehicle, went into the the the the parking lot of the plaza or the shopping center. And they they keep watching. They saw a man came out um of the vehicle with a tool pan. And um apparently, a security guard was walking past. And so, he he went back in the vehicle. And then and they wait out 10 minutes. They saw him came out again with the tool pan. And and stood below or stood beside another vehicle which was at that time I think it was a Kia Kia vehicle. Stood beside it. And same time, the operator senses that the team to, you know, lock down the plaza here. And when they when they lock down the the plaza or the exit and the entry, they they went in the parking lot. They saw the driver of the vehicle. Um but they didn't cost him what they didn't saw the the the they didn't see the the man that stood um beside the vehicle. But when they look at the vehicle, they realized that the pivot window uh was um damaged really smashed and the door open. They was in the process of of moving that vehicle. Uh the team search and couldn't find the man what they have. The CCTV operator insist that he didn't leave the area here. So, they start to search um the different shops in the shopping center. And in our furniture store there, they saw a man inside the furniture store sweating profusely. You know, sweating. And so, they held on to him and asked him, "Where Where is the tool pan that you have?" He said, "No, yeah, yeah, yeah." Denied no tool pan and he's just here looking at furniture. But when they start um um looking at the jaws of the furniture the jaws at and pull them all here was a tool pan you know with all the tools and so that was a success story because we monitor that case until the end you know until you know they were convicted and all the thing about it I don't want to deviate what but the thing about it we also realize that weeks when they were in custody there was a decline is a significant decline as it relates to stolen a motor vehicle in the same catching up division so so same catching up and the other divisions they have been you know optimizing the use of technology and you know being proactive as it relates to that so with the town centers they have said before we we it's it's it's it's a monthly some of the time what it's beyond the San Nicholas account to that every end of quarter he he personally brief you know the key stakeholders the business partners within the town you know at stakeholder engagement so that we keep them abreast with the progress as it relates to reduction of crime and so by keeping them abreast and getting them involved it it it has come a very far way we have citizens that I call in you know daily you know to you know and and you know to to assist and provide support us to ensure that you know the town center it's pretty much safe I have been there you know you know I have been there back in the days where Spanish Town I mean for the week if if you have a week pass and there's not shooting incident then you know it's a clap on no we are we can we can multiple weeks and and SSB SSB it it speaks to good leadership it speaks to good policing you know minus 43% you you've gone 12 murders um when compared to 21 22 this time last year. And last year there was a significant improvement on the year before. I mean, what are you and your crime officer and your your your team doing um to ensure that these because some people last year said these are results that will not be replicated that it um in 2026. But yet still you're bettering uh one of your best years. Right. Um last year we had for the first quarter 14 murders. That was a record. Uh we're going to write And you're beating a record. for the same quarter it were only seven uh for the first 3 months of the year. At this time we are at 12 murders and it is uh uh combination of activities deliberately targeting some of the violence producers. And so the opportunities for them to commit crimes have been significantly reduced. Uh when you speak of the hot spot um policing we know that these areas that we call hot spots, majority of the citizens there are law-abiding citizens. So what we do, we have a round-the-clock uh patrol in these areas. One of the things that we understand about these areas that we consider the hot spots, some of the personal the few persons that are likely to commit crime or want to involve themselves in criminal activity. What they sometimes do, they go to other communities and commit the crimes. And the individuals or gangs aligned to other persons will come to their communities and then innocent persons are killed. So when we occupy the hot spots, we deny even criminals from other areas to come in. So the migratory criminals have been less in some cases in North because if you are caught here, we're going to take you in and we're going to question you and you're going to be uncomfortable coming in St. Catherine North if you come to do unlawful activities. So, that's one of the things that we we also have the numerous community engagements and I can tell you we what we do we have uh groups such as the justice of the peace uh the uh religious leaders. We have as you have only very active ministers for to us. Yes, we have separate meetings with them with um um educational institution they um the guidance counselors and the principals of schools. We have meetings, we have our neighborhood watch, we have our farmers watch. So, we meet with the various groups and we have discussions with them and no, they will tell us what their needs are and we tell them what we would like for them to assist us with because while we are the police uh policing is not done by us alone. Policing is a is is a holistic um initiative that we involved them in somewhat um to engage us and to tell us how we can better serve them. And like you said earlier, Spanish Town above Rocks, St. Catherine North is the largest division in Jamaica. Presently, we have 14 police station. And we have some very rural Above Rocks, uh Guanaboe Vale, Glengoffe. The persons in these areas, the citizens in these areas, they you know, their request is probably different from Spanish Town. The farmers and and and the the the persons who have their little run robins, they have different needs from the persons who are going through having traffic congestion in Spanish Town. So, we have to meet them and to engage them and they will have discussion and we'll try our best to prioritize their needs as best as a practicable. So, it is a holistic approach and I can tell you our stakeholder engagement has a big part to play in how we police St. Catherine North. Uh ACP, I give you the final word. We're out of time. Send that message to the person who is watching this in some part of St. Catherine North who needs reassurance that the police care and that your team is trying to build a better future for them. Uh um definitely. Um so over the last couple of years it it has been a real transformation for the division of Area 5. And uh all the success of this transformation is all due to the the support and partnership of our citizens and the communities of um Area 5. And um you know, we just want to say to the citizens of Area 5, especially I mean St. Catherine North here, that you know, we we we crave your support. We crave your continued support because you know, we are building you know, safer communities, you know, more resilient communities and a safe safer future for for all of us. And um you know, we we we we by by all means, you know, all the success that we have achieved so far is is is due to the support and partnership of the citizens. Uh the first quarter for for 2026 uh was very excellent for Area 5. Uh we uh 14 murders for for the first quarter. Um in comparison to 48 um last year. Uh a whopping 71 um percent reduction in murders. And so, we are on to something. And and I believe that it is a partnership. And so, I want to assure the citizens that the police um of Area 5 will continue to to do their part. We will continue to police with them. And so, you know, this sustainable effort um this this sustainable effort can only be successful with the with their support. Thank you very much ACP Chambers, SSP Nicholson Watton, informative conversation highlighting how collaboration, innovation, and especially community engagement continue to drive policing efforts across area five and more specifically in St. Catherine North. As the JCF continues to strengthen its operational capabilities and to deepen its partnerships with citizens, the shared commitment to safety, trust, and service remains at the heart of everything we do. This has been the Force for Good podcast. Until next time, take care.