ST JAMES, Jamaica — Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson says approximately 254 police officers have graduated from the Jamaica Constabulary Force Police Academy since April, with 712 still in training.

He was speaking at the official opening of the Mount Salem Police Station in St James, recently, when he made the announcement.

“Our capacity to train police officers has tripled. We have moved from two to four training facilities over that (COVID-19) period. Now we can turn out police officers at a much faster rate,” he said.

He also added that this batch of officers is highly trained and professional.

“These police officers that we are turning out are not ‘boots on the ground’. It is a term that has been used for some time to describe our police officers. That is not what [we] are producing; what [we] are producing are young Jamaicans who are professional law enforcement officers.

“[They] are highly trained, adaptable, and can deal with a domestic situation, can help somebody to cross the road or they can face danger and violence, and respond to all those circumstances appropriately. That is what [we] are doing and that is what we need, not just numbers,” Anderson stressed.

Related story: Specially trained cops for St James