Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer
An aerial view of the new Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Coastguard station in Port Morant, St. Thomas. The station, which is the sixth outpost of the JDF and which was opened yesterday, will serve the eastern belt of the island.

National Security Minister Derrick Smith has said that concerns raised by the police in the St. James division would be addressed by next Monday. At the same time, the minister has expressed surprise at comments made by the Police Federation.

Mr. Smith was speaking with journalists yesterday after the opening of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) coastguard station at Port Morant, St. Thomas.

"The acting commissioner (of police) and myself travelled to Montego Bay on Monday. We met with over 200 police personnel of the St. James division. After that, we met with the senior police personnel from that division. We looked at a series of things, including resource requirements. There was only one request that will be satisfied if not by today, surely Monday," Smith said.

no specifics

The minister, however, did not say what the specific requirements which would be met were.

The Police Federation, while welcoming Mr. Smith's comment, is taking the Government to task over what it says is its unresponsiveness to the recent spate of police killings.

"We need to know where the Government stands. We are not satisfied with the position of the Minister and the entire Government and we need to know definitively how they will deal with the entire situation," chairman of the federation, Corporal Hartley Stewart, told The Gleaner yesterday.

The situation about which he spoke was the killing of Sergeant Errol Brown, the second policeman to be killed in Montego Bay, St. James, this week.

Corporal Stewart said the Government needed to state clearly the actions it would take to combat the rise in police killings, as well as provide the necessary resources for crime fighting in the division, which has been rocked by sustained violence. Twenty policemen have been murdered this year, including an assistant commissioner of police.