MANDEVILLE, Manchester – The Manchester Chamber of Commerce has expressed concern about the high level of crime in the parish, and has written to the police high command to request an inventory of the resource requirements of the police so it could help meet them.

The chamber’s president, Wayne Lawson, made the announcement at a press conference held yesterday.

Lawson, at the same time, announced its plans to collaborate with the Heart Trust/NTA in next month’s staging of the trust’s third annual entrepreneurial conference. Opportunities for entrepreneurship, he said, could act as a deterrent to crime.

“It is our firm belief that a successful drive to promote entrepreneurism [sic] in our parish will afford a necessary reduction in the levels of hopelessness, joblessness, idleness and criminal activities,” Lawson said.

Lawson, who said the chamber had met with the police repeatedly, did not reveal specifics of these meetings, which were to discuss, among other things, the involvement of neighbourhood watches in crime fighting, saying only that “something is in the works”.

He, however, suggestions which the chamber said could help in the fight on crime. These included:

. vehicles seized at customs, which are usually auctioned, should be made available to the police to carry out their duties;

. establishment of a response team in Manchester;

. revival of neighbourhood watches; and

. that citizens become more proactive in reporting crimes.

“There is a restraint to report these crimes, as to why we really don’t know,” Lawson said. “If we don’t know the extent of the crime, we have a weaker argument to get resources,” he added.

Earlier this month, the police superintendent in charge of Manchester, Michael James, said the parish needed “commensurate human and material resources to maintain greater visibility”.

Yesterday, Lawson said the fight against crime in the parish needed to start with “the people of Manchester” and encouraged the citizenry to communicate more with the police.