SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine – These days, shops and offices along the Old Harbour Road business strip in Spanish Town have been keeping their doors open until 8:00 pm; and with good reason.

The Old Harbour Road Business Association (OHRBA) – which was launched in May of this year – and the police have been helping to thwart the activities of robbers and extortionists who prey on businesses in the old capital.

But on Saturday that association took its initiative one step further by launching a ‘business watch’, an initiative akin to the community neighbourhood watch groups presently operating in a number of Jamaican communities.

Some 43 of the 60 business establishments on the one-mile business strip are members of the watch, which was launched at Willodene Parkway Shopping Plaza.

According to OHRBA president James Foster, members of the business watch would now report any extortion attempt to the police.

“We, as business persons from all strata of the society, have come together in this fashion to collectively secure our businesses, while still enjoying the dynamic spirit of business competitiveness,” Foster explained.

“We publicly announce and emphasise that this organisation does not support any extortion or any form of corruption, and we will be quick to report to the police when these raise their ugly heads on this business strip,” he added.

Since last year, some 20 people were murdered and dozens shot and injured in Spanish Town. And according to Foster, because of the ongoing violence, businesses on the strip were forced to close their doors at 5:00 pm as by then most customers had stopped coming.

However, he noted that since the association was formed in May this year and more police personnel were deployed to the area, the shops have been able to remain open until 8:00 pm.

“Because of the violence business people have lost a significant amount of money, which has a negative impact on the community. And with Christmas around the corner, we have to protect the customers and our business,” Foster remarked. He, however, expressed optimism that with the business watch in place, economy on the strip – which has 15 shopping plazas – was poised to boom again.

Acting assistant commissioner of police in charge of community relations, Leon Rose, claimed that the business watch was historic as it was the first to be launched in Jamaica.

He told the gathering that the association was “sending a strong and profound message to the agents of criminality participating in extortion”.

Added Rose: “If you can envelop yourselves together in this business watch, then it will be unlikely that it will be penetrated by criminals. Therefore, when they make an attempt to extort money and come up on a barrier, that line of defence is not a single individual but it now becomes the business watch of Old Harbour Road, and this is a most powerful message you have sent.”

Rose went on to urge members of the business community to invest the money that some of them were paying the extortionists into programmes for the young people in the community.

“Rather than giving extortionists your money, I would like to suggest that if there is even the thought to succumb to the principle of extortion, as business persons you consider building a fund that would speak to youth development and community development,” he remarked.

He also encouraged the group to expand the focus of the business watch to include petty thieves.

At the same time, the assistant commissioner told members of the business community that there was a 40 per cent drop in major crimes – homicide, shooting and robbery – in Spanish Town. He said, however, that sexual offences were on the increase.

OHRBA has already published a business directory and a leaflet with 23 security tips.

In addition the Spanish Town police have been holding training seminars for people in the business community. They have been receiving training in target handling, identifying suspicious persons, property marking and identification, observation techniques, crime detection and alertness.