ASSISTANT Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken has credited two factors for ‘A’ Division, which he heads, being more active in prosecuting indictable cases before the courts within the past year. Those factors are: Capacity-building of ranks, and the division acting on reports made by members of the public.Commander Hicken disclosed last Friday that persons have been coming forward and sharing information with the police with regard to crimes committed within ‘A’ Division. He said those persons have been giving statements to the police, and are even prepared to attend court to offer evidence.

“If you look at the indictable crimes you will see that there are more reports in 2015 than [in] 2014, and one can say it is because of capacity-building; and one can now say that they are getting results from reporting matters, and there is no more frustration. So definitely you will see an increase in reports, and what is noticeable here, too, is that the amount of cases here is more than in 2014, and we want to continue to build capacity, and that will be our hallmark,” Commander Hicken explained.

Hicken said ‘A’ Division police would continue to hold roadblocks and stop-and-search exercises, as those are also being successful. He explained that his ranks were able to recover 23 firearms during 2014, whilst they have, so far, recovered 31 in 2015. Most of those weapons were recovered when the police conducted stop-and-search exercises.

Hicken explained that stop-and-search exercises are not held willy-nilly, but are based either on intelligence received from persons resident in affected communities, or from persons who would have seen and/or heard things.

“Gone are the days when we are cordoning off an entire block to arrest one person. That in itself causes conflict with the police. It causes conflict because we are inconveniencing all, or the majority, for the minority; and while it is still applicable, it is not being used now as it used to be long ago. What we are doing now is focusing on the targeted areas, and minimising the inconvenience to others,” he said.

Hicken regarded roadblocks as a posture that is still relevant today; and he said it always sends a message, and one would want to feel that something is ongoing in and around the city, since the police are usually out in their numbers during execution of a roadblock exercise.

The commander said that when things happen in the communities — and by extension the division — information is transmitted to the Operations Room, and standard operating procedures are immediately activated. He said the systems will indicate where incidents occur, and based on that indication, deployment and strategies are activated.