The once sleepy mid-island town of Mandeville has seen impressive growth in its physical development in recent years, but that has come at a price. Too high a price, some say.

An economic boom, fuelled largely by construction of upscale homes by returning residents, many craving the cooler temperatures, peace and tranquility associated with the Manchester capital, has also delivered a sting in the tail – more murders, shootings and robberies.

Police figures tell part of the sordid story.

Between January 1 and December 28 this year, 25 murders have been reported in the parish, with Mandeville accounting for the bulk of that number. This is a disconcerting 16 per cent above the numbers for the corresponding period last year.

And that statistic is likely to increase if the police’s worst fears are confirmed, that the decomposing remains recovered by cops from the Martin’s Hill waste disposal facility on the outskirts of Mandeville yesterday, turn out to be those of missing couple Richard and Julia Lyn.

The number of reported shooting incidents also moved up from 13 in 2005 to 27 this year, while the number of reported robberies rose, albeit slightly, from 60 to 63. Carnal abuse cases doubled in the period to 32.

Political hopefuls, Vando Palmer of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) and Sally Porteous of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), are generally agreed about the cause of the problems but see it, predictably, from different points of view.

Both will be vying for the Central Manchester seat in the general elections due this coming year.

“Mandeville’s fast-paced development has come at a price,” said Palmer who came to prominence as an energetic media spokesperson for the state-run National Works Agency.

Palmer said the congestion in the town, inadequate provision of services such as water and solid waste management, together with higher crime levels, were by-products of the town’s rapid growth over several years.

“Anywhere development is taking place it attracts all kinds of people, and we are going to be grappling with crime for a very long time to come if the perpetrators think they can get away with it,” he told the Sunday Observer.

For her part, Porteous, who is the outspoken deputy mayor of Mandeville, pointed to “no real job creation” as the cause of the crime problem in the developing town.

She said the police were doing everything they could to put a lid on the situation, but believed that they had been “given a straw basket to carry water”.

“I have seen the crime in Mandeville going up and up and up. I have called over and over again for more police, for more mobile patrol cars and I’m also now calling for a proper forensic laboratory to be here in mid-island,” she said.

“Everything is being concentrated in Kingston, and because crime on a whole in Mandeville is not anywhere as bad as it is in other parts of the country, like Kingston and St James, they don’t think we have a crime problem,” complained Porteous.

“This is management by crisis, not management by planning. You plan for the fact that as a town expands and there are more people in it, you are going to get a higher crime rate, therefore you must take care of it by proper planning.”

Porteous said she had been told by a policeman that in the 1980s the town had 10 patrol cars, compared with two today “and even those two are not out on the road all day”.

The Constabulary Communication Network’s senior information liaison officer for Manchester, Sergeant Rovan Salmon, admitted that there were in fact only two patrol cars serving the 53 communities in the Manchester Police Division.

The paucity of patrol vehicles belies the seeming prosperity of Mandeville, once glorified as an elitist community. But that aside, the town has, in recent years, been experiencing mounting fear among citizens, following a string of incidents involving murders, abductions, house-breakings and praedial larceny.

The prominent murder cases include those of 22 year-old Bahamian student Joseph Burrowes in 2004, and nursing student Judith Spence, who was killed a few weeks ago while visiting her parents from the United States.

However, the police insist that they have the situation under control.

“We cannot say we have serious (crime) problems,” Sergeant Salmon previously told the Sunday Observer. “We’ve basically put a lid on things (and) we are getting almost 90 per cent co-operation. People can repose their confidence in us.”

But long-time residents of the town who knew the care-free crime-free days of earlier times say they are frightened by the transformation.

A taxi operator who has been living and plying his trade in Mandeville for more than 20 years, confessed he was scared of the way things had become. “Crime is very terrible in Mandeville (today) and yuh cyaan trus’ no one. I drive taxi, but I don’t work in the night. I’m afraid,” he said.

Similar fears were expressed by a female resident of Downs in the parish who has been working in the capital for more than 12 years.

“First time, mi neva used to ‘fraid so, but now Almighty God, mi ‘fraid because di people dem just terrible out pon di road deh because so much crime and violence neva used to inna Mandeville,” she told the Sunday Observer. “I work (here) for 12 years now and it wasn’t like this before. First time yuh coulda walk freely on the street, nuh baddy nah trouble yuh, but now, all when mi leave work mi not even hardly waan go shop fi buy anyting. Mi jus go straight home because mi ‘fraid.”

Another woman, who has been residing in the university town for more than 40 years, said it was not so much fear that was getting to her as concern for the state of her community.

“I certainly think there has been an increase (in crime) in the last few months. I’m not afraid but I’m concerned, and I think something needs to be done, and as citizens of this town, we need to come together and look at what we can do to reduce the incidence of crime and make our community much safer,” she said. “Before, it was very quiet, very calm, people could walk at any hours of night or day.

You could go about your business, but now people are afraid and many of us are concerned about the situation.

“I think for one, the town has grown and we have a lot of persons here who don’t seem to focus, maybe they’re unemployed. Then too, we have persons coming from outside of the area. I firmly believe so, and so the crime is somewhat being imported into the community. But I think if we had more opportunities for employment and if there was more education and community involvement we would be able to reduce the whole matter of crime in our country,” the resident added.

A female student of the Northern Caribbean University – one of the institutions that has helped to fuel the town’s growth – shared her nightly ritual with the Sunday Observer.

“When I go in the house, I look under the bed, I draw away the shower curtain and look and I look behind the door, because a lot of times when we hear about crime we hear there were no signs of forced entry, so I figure more or less that probably I left one window open and they might come in, so I make sure I look fir them.”

thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com