JCF moves to prevent gang recruitment in schools

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), through its School Resource Officers (SROs), has put measures in place to prevent gangs from using schools as feeder institutions.

Speaking on the JCF’s ‘Force for Good’ Podcast on August 30, Sub-officer in Charge of the St Catherine North Community Safety and Security Branch, Sergeant Kester Fennel, underscored the importance of preventing gangs from recruiting new members, particularly within schools.

“We recognise that within [some schools], there are pockets of gangs [being formed]. Sometimes [when] you look at the groupings, [it’s] boys and girls who come together to form different groups… and they give their groups names. So, we target those groups and we pay keen attention to them. Through the school resource officers, we have interjected ourselves in these schools and we have been able to identify some students who may have some behaviours that might suggest that they might be affiliated with certain utterances. So we pay close attention to those,” he said.