Dwayne Mcleod, Staff Reporter

The St Andrew North Police are reaping their sweet rewards as they continue in their relentless efforts to fight crime.

Earlier this year, the division had been rocked by a substantial increase in the number of reported robberies.

Since then, the police vowed to leave no stone unturned as they work to bring calm back to the division and reassure the residents of their safety.

"We have increased our efforts in the last couple of weeks, hoping to bring robberies to tolerable levels," said Superintendent Anthony Harris, commanding officer for the division.

In the last few weeks, the police have been carrying out regular operations and have been enjoying some success.

"We have made several arrests, seized several stolen vehicles, which were allegedly used to facilitate robberies, and recovered items including several cellphones," said Superintendent Harris.

In addition, the police have seized a large quantity of offensive weapons since January.

The division was also marred by an internal conflict between men from Cassava Piece, which has left at least seven men dead since January.

Operations officer for the division, Deputy Superintendent of Police Carol McKenzie had, in regard to that conflict, also vowed to bring peace back to the troubled community.

The police have since been maintaining their presence in the area and also been working on improving their relationship with the residents.

It is a move which DSP McKenzie says is going quite well.

"We've had some arrests, recovered some firearms. We'll be doing some interventions to see what strategies we can employ and deploy, and will aim to improve community relations," DSP McKenzie told THE STAR.