Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake says the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is in a state of readiness to respond to possible incidents as the island braces for the impact of Hurricane Beryl.

The police commissioner, who was speaking at a press briefing on Monday (July 1), said the JCF’s incident command centres across the island will be activated today at 6:00 pm.

“Our divisional commanders have been meeting with our parish disaster committees, and we have established a liaison system with a number of liaison officers who will coordinate with other stakeholders at the parish levels in all 19 geographic divisions. Each liaison officer is at least a superintendent of police, and this programme will be managed by our acting commissioner in charge of operations, Mr Michael Bailey,” Blake noted.

He says plans are in readiness to offer secure shelters once they have been established by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).

“We will operate in a four-tiered management structure, which includes a headquarters management team that looks at the national picture and plugs into the national apparatus. We will also establish a management team specifically for the corporate area, primarily because of the important infrastructure that exists within the corporate area,” Blake added.

Emphasis will be placed on protecting the island’s airports, lone refiner Petrojam Limited, hospitals, courts, prisons, and scheduled premises through a collaboration between the JCF and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).

Additionally, he noted that enough human resources will be deployed to respond to incidents across the island.

“We have enough human resources deployed; we have scaled down most of our operations, except for all our operational personnel, who will be out in their numbers. We will possibly be recalling some people from leave in order to ensure that we have adequate deployment on the road during this period,” the commissioner noted. 

“Our highway patrol will continue to monitor our thoroughfares across the island to ensure that they remain usable and passable. Our mobile patrol will be concentrating primarily within the domestic spaces and the business districts, and our quick response, which may be extremely relevant given what may happen on our roadways, will be out in full numbers to help respond to incidents and also to protect our business communities,” Blake said.

Meanwhile, the commissioner noted that the JCF has sufficient supplies and heavy equipment to assist in hurricane response activities.

“In terms of our communication network, it is paramount that even if our commercial communication is down, our public safety remains up during this period, and as such, we have a very comprehensive plan for looking at securing our communication infrastructure, which will be led by our technology branch. The idea is to ensure constant monitoring of our communication sites and ensure that they are up. However, in the event that we have a site that is down, we have a response team, and we have ensured that they have an adequate supply of maintenance equipment. We have also ensured that all our generators are properly fueled, and we have fuel to take us beyond the expected time of this hurricane,” Blake stated.

He added that there is a contingency plan in the event that the JCF’s emergency command centre has been impacted by the hurricane.

Beryl is predicted to reach the island’s shores on Wednesday, July 3, bringing a life-threatening storm surge to Jamaica, according to the U.S.-based National Hurricane Centre.