Filth cleanup begins at station

The filth and damaged bathrooms at the St. John’s Police Station will be addressed before the end of this week. This is what police officers there said they were told yesterday by members of two teams leading the  cleanup and repairs at the station located on Market and Newgate streets.
One officer said the Central  Board of Health (CBH) assessed the washrooms  at the station on Monday; flushed them out and disinfected the area.
The team was accompanied by the Minister of Health Molwyn Joseph, the officer reported, along with another team from the Public Works Department  (PWD).
That officer also said that the PWD team will be doing a complete overhaul and installing five bathrooms “before Thursday or by Thursday.”
Another officer said the CBH returned yesterday to flush and disinfect the washrooms and cells, and a plan is now in place to have the station cleaned more regularly than the once a week routine which was in place for some time.
PWD will be providing most of the materials,  the officer said, and will carry out the necessary work.
The filthy and deteriorating conditions at the station were made public last week when an officer locked up a man and failed to seize his personal effects, to include his cellular phone, prior to putting him into the said detention cell.
The man went live on Facebook, showing the public the faeces, garbage and urine on the floor in all the bathrooms. Up to yesterday, the individual was complaining of feeling unwell, and told OBSERVER media he has had a fever since he was released from the station last Friday after spending three days behind bars, living in the filth.
The public safety minister, Steadroy Benjamin, confirmed that a massive clean-up got underway there on Monday.
“The matter has been addressed. Everything was cleaned up and the mess is no more,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin said the bathrooms will be cleaned every day instead of once a week. In fact, he said the decision has been made into policy.
“The office sergeant was spoken to and it is going to be a policy that the bathrooms be cleaned on a daily basis to prevent any recurrence,” he added.
The government, according to Benjamin, is also making plans to install a Public Upkeep Unit which will oversee the cleanliness of the police stations and other buildings in which government’s businesses are conducted.
“We are going to change a lot of things. What we saw was crazy,” Benjamin lamented. He said he was unaware of the extent of the problem prior to being contacted by OBSERVER media.