The Hanover police department said on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, it had to provide security cover for a group of National Water Commission, NWC, employees after they came under attack from angry residents of Jew Hill.

According to an NWC statement issued on Friday, March 24, 2023, the workers were disconnecting illegal accounts when residents in the community hurled threats at them—and barricaded the main entrance to the community with burning tires.

The NWC says the actions taken by the citizens prevented the NWC workers from completing their task of disconnecting illegal supplies. 

Jeffery Smith, NWC’s Regional Manager for Hanover, Jeffrey said the incident was unacceptable and warned residents that trespassing on the company’s network is against the law.

PICA sets March 31, 2023, as the date, it starts issuing E-Passports. 

The Passport, Immigration, and Citizenship Agency (PICA) will start issuing new high-security electronic or e-passports documents on March 31, 2023.

The agency said passports previously issued are still valid until expiration, so there’s no need to replace them at this time. PICA also said there would be no increased feeds at this time. 

According to PICA, the e-passport is readable by an electronic machine. And it has a microchip embedded that stores the holder’s biographical data.

With the introduction of the e-passports, PICA said Jamaica would join more than 150 countries that use a similar document.

PICA says its decision to issue the document facilitates wider acceptance of the Jamaican passport for travel globally.

The new document will bear the e-passports logo used by all the relevant countries worldwide.

The St Ann police arrested and charged a 55yo Man with several counts of breaking.

According to the police, a 55-year-old man from St Ann was charged with several breaking offenses in the parish in November last year.

He’s Alcan Rose, o/c ‘Baz,’ a vendor of Seville Heights in St Ann’s Bay.

The police charged Rose with one count of Office breaking and Larceny, one count of Shop Breaking and Larceny, one count of Shop Breaking with Intent, and one count of Malicious Destruction of Property.

According to the authorities, on Saturday, November 12, 2022, at about 7:00 pm, the complainant locked his business place in Claremont, engaged the alarm system, and left. However, upon his return the next day, he noticed that the alarm system in his business place was disabled and somebody had broken into his business. 

And after making further checks, the businessman discovered that the thief and his accomplice stole cash and cheques amounting to $3.2 million.

Also missing were six boxes, each containing forty packages of cabbage seeds, with an estimated value of over $3.3 million.

A second complainant reported a similar incident a few weeks ago.

According to the police report, on Monday, March 6, 2023, at about 7:45 pm, the complainant said she securely locked her ice cream and pastry shop in Claremont and left. However, upon returning to the premises, she noticed Rose had forced his way into the shop and stolen more than $15,000.

Later that day, the police said Rose allegedly broke into a gas station in the same area where the owner discovered that somebody had used implements to cut the cafeteria grill and entered the shop.

However, nothing was missing.

The three complainants’ reported the matter to the police, who launched an investigation into the incidents.

Rose was subsequently arrested and charged following a question-and-answer interview.