Members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch at the launch of the new division held at Harman Barracks in St Andrew on Wednesday. (Photos: Bryan Cummings)

POLICE Commissioner Antony Anderson promises, when school reopens next week, members of the more than 300-strong Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB) will be out in their numbers to ensure a smooth traffic flow, especially along the major corridors under repair.

He was speaking at the PSTEB’s launch held at Harman Barracks in Vineyard Town, St Andrew, on Wednesday. The division will be headquartered on Elleston Road.

“We’re launching this at perhaps the worst of times. A lot of our busiest roads in our country are being worked on which has caused major disruptions over the summer period. Come next week when school opens and everybody is back on …. it’s going to be critical what we do. I know we’ve been meeting with other stakeholders like the National Works Agency to work out how we do this. But central and pivotal to good outcomes is what this branch does,” Anderson told the audience which included Dr Horace Chang, minister of national security; Dr Fitz Jackson, opposition spokesman on national security; and Kenute Hare, director of the Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport and Mining; as well as members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). “So under the worst of circumstances, the eyes of the nation will be upon us.”

There are currently four major thoroughfares being rehabilitated. These are: Marcus Garvey Drive; Mandela Highway (from Six Miles to Ferry); Constant Spring Road (from Manor Park to Eastwood Park Road intersection); and Hagley Park Road (from Maxfield Avenue to Three Miles).

Mandela Highway and Constant Spring Road are the first and second most heavily used traffic corridor in Jamaica, respectively. The latter sees up to 4,500 vehicles on a daily basis.

The PTSEB is a merger of the JCF’s Motorised Patrol and the Traffic and Highway divisions aimed at improving social order and safe public spaces; improving compliance to the Road Traffic Act; and reducing crime in public spaces.

“Initially, we’re rolling out in Kingston and St Andrew. We’ll be in Spanish Town, then we’ll be in Montego Bay and over time we’ll grow so this presence will be felt all across the entire country,” he said.

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