Police Take Over Downtown Area in Final 2015 Meet & Greet Exercise

Today, the officers of the Eastern Division South conducted their final meet and greet exercise for 2015. We’ve followed the Police through some of the notorious hotspots in the city as they’ve tried to get the community in an interactive frame of mind. This afternoon, we caught up with them on Albert Street and they did their rounds in the area. According to commander of that division Chester Williams, it’s an initiative which has reaped significant dividends and one which will continue in the New Year.

Chester Williams

Sr. Supt. Chester Williams, Commander, Eastern Division South

“We are fully away that tomorrow is the final day before New Year’s, New Year’s Eve, and we know that people will be busy in this area. After all this is the largest commercial hub of the country, so we expect an influx of people into this part of the city between today and tomorrow to do their final shopping for preparation for New year’s Day. We are here today meeting the business people, and as we did last week we are giving them tips on crime prevention – what can be done to make themselves less of a target to those who want to perpetrate criminal acts as well as meeting people who are shopping and talking to them about safety tips as well, all in an effort to reduce the amount of crime that would have occurred during this time of year. We have not had any reports of any robbery or intended robberies in this area. It could be as a result of the intense Police presence in the area. We do vigorous stop and search in the back areas where we know persons who may want to perpetrate such acts would come from, like the Jump Street Area. We have Prince Street, we have the canal side…those are the areas where people would normally come onto Albert Street to perpetrate criminal acts. We have in place a defence dome if you want to put it that way, to stop those who would want to come into the area to perpetrate robberies and other crimes against persons or properties.”