So anybody who still lives in Jamaica and reads the gleaner, watches and listens the news and/or walks on the road will have seen or heard that nearly everywhere you look you will see two or 3 policemen walking on the road. This is definitely a welcome change as in my opinion the increase police presence will serve a number of factors one of which was not included in the press releases by any of the media houses.

All of the news has been pointing to the fact that the Police will be used to Detect and Deter crime. Of course we see this definitely, petty theft will definitely be on the downward slope because a policeman will almost always be nearby and thus will be able to jump to action... But what I believe everybody is forgetting is the fact that... Jamaicans generally are not that happy with the police force anymore. It just doesn't happen, everytime that most Jamaicans see a policeman, the first comment made is almost 95% of the time negative. If the police is driving through traffic with a siren they always "have nothing to do", a police man walking downtown is always "looking for a bar" or "looking for somebody to trouble"... This is really what alot of Jamaicans feel.

What I think the increased police presence will do is make more people feel comfortable around policemen and maybe even appreciate the work that they do more. This is important because as we all know community policing is really important to the force. Because finally we might just be able to get out of the entire "informer" mindset that we have... but this is of course another might and not a definite yes or no.

But while I do appreciate the work of the policemen I do have to revert to the reason why I put "useful" in my topic name... How useful will this police presence really be? There have been findings already in Montego Bay where numerous firearms and knives were found but to me in accordance with the massive crime problem that we suffer this is just minor assistance. But as the saying goes, "every mikkle mek a mukkle" (spelling , how would you spell that anyway?), or maybe I should use the ever present "one one cocoa full basket", that could possibly be more relevant. But the fact of the matter is, this is a good first step to take... The only issue is how do we get rid of the corruption of the police force, because as people get more comfortable with the police, the police get more comfortable with people... and the cycle continues...