MONTEGO BAY, St James -The much anticipated $33.5-million Command and Control Vehicle (Mobile Police Station), which will be placed on the popular Gloucester Avenue in Montego Bay to curtail crime in the area, will be commissioned into service on Sunday.

“The vehicle arrived in the island on Tuesday and is now at the Offices of the Commissioner of Police in Kingston in preparation for the launch,” tourism minister Ed Bartlett said yesterday.

Last month, Bartlett warned drug pushers and tourist harassers who operate along the busy Gloucester Avenue that they would be caught and brought to book when the new crime-fighting equipment was commissioned.

“The technology is pretty advanced and we are confident that we will succeed in our drive to have the criminals removed from the Hip Strip,” the tourism minister said then.

Yesterday, he told the Observer that two members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force returned to the island last week from Florida where they were trained to operate the unit.

Tourism officials in the resort city have long complained about the large number of drug pushers and persons harassing locals as well as tourists along the ‘Hip Strip’.

Last year, officials of the police force brought to the government and tourist officials the difficulty they were having in patrolling the city, due mainly to a lack of resources. As a result, the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) allocated the funds to purchase the unit.