AMMAN -- Director of the Public Security Department (PSD) Lieutenant General Mohammad Aitan on Sunday announced the third phase of his department's security strategy for 2007.
The police chief said the strategy will focus on the continuity of the department's open policy, increase in recruitment, support for existing human resources and the rehabilitation and training of staff resources, as well as work on existing infrastructure.
In June 2005, Aitan announced that his department was working on implementing new security strategies to meet future challenges, including the expected increase in population numbers.
The Kingdom's population is expected to reach 18 million by 2020, "and this could have negative repercussions on security if we do not prepare for it ahead of time," Aitan said at the time.
In order to meet these challenges, the PSD divided the Kingdom into five regions: North (Mafraq, Irbid, Jerash, Ajloun), Central (Zarqa, Madaba, Salt), South (Karak, Tafileh, Maan), Amman and Aqaba and the badia.
Each of the five regions, run by separate administrations, will have its own court and correctional and rehabilitation centres under the strategy.
The first two phases of the PSD strategies have already been implemented, Police Spokesperson Major Basheer Daaja told The Jordan Times yesterday.
Some of the accomplished plans, according to Dajaa, include increasing security campaigns, introducing community and environment police units, beefing up the presence of policewomen and recruiting university graduates to improve police services.
The PSD's open policy includes building 10 additional police stations and directorates, with each station responsible for 50,000 citizens in a certain area, according to the PSD director.
"We aim to provide human, social and security services for our citizens in the best and simplest way possible," Aitan said, during a meeting with senior officers at the PSD headquarters in Abdali.
The PSD is in the process of building a state-of-the-art control and command centre to control traffic and criminal offences.
He said four new helicopters would be added to the police fleet to meet any "exceptional circumstances and to aid in security and humanitarian operations."
Aitan, who was appointed to head the PSD in December 2004, said rehabilitation of prisons remains a priority and concern for his department, which is currently in the process of building two correctional and rehabilitation centres in each of the five regions.
Some of the country's prisons have come under fire by human rights organisations and activists, which claim many still lack adequate services and are overcrowded.
Turning to the traffic problem in the country, Aitan said road safety remains a top priority for the department.
"We are exerting all possible efforts and have coordinated with other parties to find a solution for this problem," the police chief said.
Around 800 people are killed and 18,000 injured in some 83,000 traffic accidents in the country annually.
By Rana Husseini
© Jordan Times 2007
