ONE month since a zone of special operations (ZOSO) was declared in Parade Gardens, Kingston Central, rival gangsters appear to be engaging on friendlier terms with each other, organising football matches and other community events amongst themselves.
However, Senior Superintendent of Police Steve McGregor, who is in charge of operations for Area Four, which Kingston Central falls under, told a Rotary Club of St Andrew North meeting Monday that despite seeing some changes in behaviour of some of the residents, he is taking nothing for granted, even as the security forces work to make Parade Gardens the first safe community in Kingston Central.
“They are now trying to make allegiance with each other. They are playing football matches and are organising community gatherings and so on, but we are not going to just take it at face value. They have to convince us more that they are willing to work with each other and the police, as the mediator there. It is a work in progress and we are very excited about what we see. We are very optimistic that we are going going to get there,” McGregor told the Jamaica Observer.
Having served as commanding officer for the division in 2010, McGregor said many of the residents, even the gangsters, who are familiar with his no-nonesense style of policing, welcome his presence alongside current head of the division, Superintendent Beresford Williams, and are already falling in line.
“It is early days. We are still in the clear stage of the ZOSO. We brought Kingston Central murder rate down to as far as 11 when I was there in 2010, so the people there know me quite well.
“We are using some of the elements of the safe community strategies. Whilst we are in the clearing stage, we are bringing in all the violence contributors. We are taking them in to sit down with them, tell them what the police stands for and to ask them what they are about.
“If they are of something that is not in sync with the police, they are either going to have to leave the community, be arrested or go somewhere else. We have read the riot act to them and most of them are now listening. Most of them came in to me personally. [But] it is still early days and we are working with it and we are having solutions.”
The senior superintendent highlighted as positive, the fact that there have been no murders or “serious issues” within Parade Gardens and surrounding areas since the ZOSO was declared.
McGregor said the security forces are currently in the process of removing all gang graffiti and then will move into the “hold phase”.
ZOSOs have three stages — clear, hold and build.
During the clear phase the security forces are supposed to eradicate thugs from the zone. In the hold phase, police and soldiers maintain their presence within a zone to ensure criminals do not return. And in the build phase agents of the State move in to provide well-needed social intervention and crucial Government services to uplift those residing within the zone.
