OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington has promised to strengthen the capability of the police force in St Ann to deal with some of the challenges facing the parish, which sits on Jamaica’s northern coast.

Ellington, who was addressing a crime symposium in Ocho Rios on Thursday, promised to deploy more police personnel to the parish from the batch of recruits now undergoing training at the Police Academy and who are expected to graduate in a few weeks.

His commitment came as new statistics released by the commanding officer for the parish, Superintendent Gary Griffiths, showed that all major crimes in the parish, except for robberies, have increased.

“We have been trying our best, through recruitment and early deployment, to get the numbers out here. We have asked Mr Griffiths to put together a plan for the execution for new recruits which will come from the next batch of graduates from the training school,” Ellington said in response to questions about the shortage of police personnel and other resources in St Ann.

He assured the residents that the parish had not been neglected and that, as a prime tourism destination, required some priority. He said that efforts were being made to get more departmental resources into the parish.

The commissioner said because of the high level of violence in St James, Clarendon, St Catherine South and North, much of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s resources have been deployed to those areas as the force wrestles with increased violent activities in the different divisions.

Meanwhile, Superintendent Griffiths disclosed that since the start of the year, 17 murders have been committed in the parish compared with 14 for the similar period last year. He said there were also increases in carnal abuse, shootings and larceny.

“Rape, which is probably the worst crime you can look at, this we saw a dramatic increase; we have 24 this year compared with eight last year for the same period, an increase of 16, most of which we attribute to a serial rapist that committed rapes in several parishes, including St Ann,” Griffiths explained.

Griffiths said despite the increases in major crimes, the police have been effective although their “cleared-up” rate was below what they wanted it to be. He said the police would continue to work on its plan crafted at the start of the year, where special focus was placed on dismantling criminal gangs.

He said there are five major gangs operating in the parish, but that the two most established — the Ochi Empire and Hot Head Crew — have influence outside of the parish and are involved in serious crimes, including murder and extortion.

“These gangs are involved in acts of extortion, acts of larceny, and at least one case of murder has been connected to the Ochi Empire,” Griffiths told the symposium.

The crime symposium was organised by the St Ann Chamber of Commerce to address several issues, including the general lawlessness of taxi and bus operators, monitoring of school children on the streets, cash-for-gold vendors, the visibility of police personnel on the streets, and informal settlers, among other issues.

Regarding the lawless behaviour of operators of public passenger vehicles, Ellington said he was in dialogue with the head of the transport authority in Kingston for repeat traffic offenders to be removed from the public transport system.

He suggested that the chamber seek dialogue with the local transport authority in the parish to identify drivers who continue to create chaos on the roads and have them removed from the system.

The commissioner said the unruly and lawless behaviour of such operators contributes to crime and violence and that these operators are sometimes the same persons who transport guns, ammunition and other contraband for criminals.