WESTERN BUREAU — The St James police division should, within the next two months, will receive additional police manpower to help tackle the growing crime problem in the parish.

“We expect, before the end of the year, to have augmented the numbers of personnel available to you down here in Montego Bay,” National Security Minister, Peter Phillips told a group of police officers in Montego Bay on Wednesday.

The policemen were among those engaged in a nine hour-long gunbattle with armed men inside Canterbury last Wednesday. At the end of that shoot-out, three policemen had been shot and injured and a similar number of gunmen lay dead. In addition, more than 25 persons were detained while eight firearms and a large quantity of assorted ammunition were recovered by the police.

According to Phillips, most of the more than 450 new police recruits now in training would be deployed to Montego Bay before the end of the year. And he said that he would also see to the provision of additional service vehicles for the parish, also in an effort to stem the increasing incidence of crime there.

“I am in the process of trying to secure additional vehicles and we are working with the ministry of finance in order to be able to secure the vehicles,” he said.

He was unable to give a timetable for the delivery of the vehicles, but he said that he was committed to doing whatever it took to ensure the resort city was rid of criminals.

“We know that the situation in Canterbury represents one small element of a growing problem of armed criminal gangs, which have taken root in some of the communities in Montego Bay. It is therefore important that we redefine our strategy to effectively up-root what is there before the root deepens and take full hold,” Phillips said.

He added that the intelligence capabilities of the force would be beefed up to allow for the effective crack down on criminals.

Meanwhile, Godfrey Dyer, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), has welcomed the minister’s announcement.

According to Dyer, while last Wednesday’s gunbattle in Canterbury appears not to have caused any damage to the island’s tourism, additional security was required in the area if similar incidents that could cause damage were to be prevented.

“We have been getting feedback on what is happening overseas and up to now, there isn’t anything that we will have to go and counteract; and this is good,” Dyer said. “(But) we now need a lot more foot patrol and bike patrol in and around Montego Bay and other tourist resorts. So I am happy that additional resources, manpower and otherwise, are being put in place,” he added.