The gov­ern­ment is to pro­vide bus­es to trans­port police per­son­nel to and from work in Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine and St James. 

The pro­vi­sion is part of the new wage agree­ment between the gov­ern­ment and the Police Federation which rep­re­sents rank and file mem­bers of the force. The agree­ment was signed yesterday.

The Gleaner/​Power 106 News Centre obtained a mes­sage from the fed­er­a­tion sent to its mem­bers this morn­ing, inform­ing that the bus ser­vice will be imple­ment­ed short­ly. It said Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips has com­mit­ted to the ear­ly imple­men­ta­tion of the ser­vice. The issue of a ded­i­cat­ed trans­porta­tion ser­vice for police per­son­nel was raised fol­low­ing the mur­der of woman con­sta­ble Crystal Thomas in July while on her way from work. She was shot and killed by armed rob­bers while on a bus trav­el­ing along Spanish Town Road in Kingston.

Police Federation chair­man, Sergeant Raymond Wilson, argued fol­low­ing the inci­dent, that cops have been lob­by­ing the gov­ern­ment on the trans­porta­tion issue for the last five years.

The new wage and fringe ben­e­fit deal, will cov­er the peri­od 2015 to 2017.
Gov’t To Provide Transport From Work For Police In Some Areas