NO SAFE HAVEN >> PORTLAND COPS ON THE LOOKOUT FOR MIGRANT CRIMINALS

HE LEADERS of the Portland police have vowed to do everything in their power to keep residents safe, even as concerns mount about possible migrant criminals making their way into the usually peaceful parish.

Four months into his role as head of the Portland Police Division, Superintendent Duane Wellington last week sought to allay the fears of residents as he promised a “new look to policing” in the parish.

T“Portland is a sleepy parish, and we need to wake up and realise what is happening in the other 13 parishes,” said Wellington during a Gleaner Editors’ Forum, which marked the end of an almost weeklong probe of crime in the parish.

“There has been a change in management. Two of us have been here since January ... so it is a new look on the whole policing of Portland,” said Wellington, while pointing to his crime officer, Detective Inspector Linton Bailey.

“It doesn’t make sense you police without knowing what are the needs of the residents,

and one of the things is to occupy space, and we have been doing that,” said Wellington.

“We have to build on what we have, our resources – both human and vehicular – and we need to get our intelligence right. When the highway (connecting Portland and St Thomas) comes, it will mean a faster way out, so we will be on top of the game in terms of what we will do ,” added Wellington.

He noted that the policemen and women under his command enjoy a superb relationship with the law-abiding residents and argued that this would be key to keeping the parish peaceful.

Last week, some Portlanders expressed concern over at least two armed robberies in the eastern side of the parish, the lack of responsiveness from the police when some reports are made, and unconfirmed reports of an influx of illegal guns into the parish.

But Bailey said the police are well aware that the majority of criminals found in Portland are from St Mary, St James, Trelawny and the Corporate Area.

He said at least two men wanted in other parishes for murder have been collared in Portland since the start of this year.

One of the five persons killed in the parish so far this year was from Westmoreland, and the police theorise that his killing was part of a dispute that started in his hometown.