$$ incentives for police

At 8.30 pm on Tuesday, officers went to an abandoned house in St Joseph where they found and seized an Uzi sub-machinegun and an ammunition magazine. Officers under the supervision of Senior Superintendent Rajkumar have found and seized a quantity of sophisticated weapons for the year thus far and these include AK-47, 9mm, UZIs and other high powered weapons. Newsday understands that other divisions will soon be collecting the $25,000 incentive as a result of gun seizures almost on a daily and nightly basis.

According to well places sources the financial initiative was offered by Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams before he proceeded on three months vacation leave. The idea is to remove illegal weapons from the streets and from the hands of criminal elements. It is the view of the Acting Commissioner that the illegal guns are being used to fuel crime in the country especially gang related murders, shootings, robberies and other gun related offences. The police are hoping that with the guns being removed from the street it will cause serious crime to decrease.

The initiative to remove guns from the street and from the hands of criminals element was also welcomed by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley who during a meeting with police divisional commanders said he was heartened to learn of the amount of gun seizures throughout the country. The initiative has also received the blessing of Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon who is also of the view of removing guns from the hands of criminal elements will also result in a decrease of gun related crime. Apart from the $25,000 initiative police officers with a track record of gun seizures have been receiving commendation for their diligence to duty which resulted in the seizure of weapons.