Click to view full size

The Ja­maica Con­stab­u­lary Force (JCF) says it will main­tain a height­ened alert sta­tus and take a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach to­wards ir­re­spon­si­ble firearm use and il­le­gal use of fire­works dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son.

“We com­mon­ly call it ‘gun salute’ at Christ­mas time. When it comes on to New Year’s, peo­ple have a way, es­pe­cial­ly both per­sons with li­censed firearms, as well as per­sons with il­le­gal weapons, they tend to do that. We have stepped up our vig­i­lance,” said Dr. Gary McKen­zie, the As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.

Dr McKen­zie, who is as­signed to the Strate­gic Op­er­a­tions Port­fo­lio and the Pub­lic Safe­ty and Traf­fic En­force­ment Branch, told a Ja­maica In­for­ma­tion Ser­vice (JIS) Think Tank that the po­lice have in­ten­si­fied their fo­cus on curb­ing the prac­tice.