PRESIDENT of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) Gloria Henry believes that the time has come for the crime situation in St James to be treated as a national priority, as murders spiral out of control in the resort parish.

“We need a national priority in terms of security and we have to have everybody coming together in a very co-ordinated way. The police obviously need more resources, but we need to have, at the national level, a greater focus on what is required here in Montego Bay,” Henry said.

“The local police obviously have tried and tested the same strategies over and over again and we are getting the same results, so it has to be elevated as a national priority. What we are seeing now is [crime] filtering out into the other parishes, Westmoreland and Hanover. So it has to be tackled at that national level,” she said.

Henry was speaking to the Jamaica Observer West following a meeting with St James MPs Dr Horace Chang and Lloyd B Smith and other stakeholders, including head of the police Area One ACP Paul Ferguson and Commander of the St James Police Division SSP Steve McGregor.

The meeting, which was described as fruitful, was convened by Dr Chang at Sunset Beach Resort last Friday morning, a day after six persons were murdered within a 24-hour period, pushing the murder tally to over 120 in the St James Police Division since the start of the year.

“The meeting was a very productive one and what we discovered forcefully is that there are a tremendous amount of challenges facing the police in the carrying out of their duties. The whole character of criminality has changed a lot, there is a certain level of sophistication and brazenness that the criminals are now showing which was not there before, so we have to deal with that. So it means that the police need more resources, both human, technica, technological as well as moral support so I think this is a good start,” Smith told the Observer West.

Dr Chang was also heartened by the outcome of the meeting.

“The discussions were productive, we expect to co-ordinate our response out here so that we can maximise the benefits that can be derived from us in all the areas that are required: Support for the police and support for the social intervention agencies,” Dr Chang said.

“As parliamentarians, Mr Smith and myself want to get a feedback… whatever legislative impediments may exist and we can take that to Parliament, whether through private motion or discussion with the ministers, to bring about the changes required,” Chang said.

Meanwhile, that same afternoon, Minister of Security Peter Bunting and other stakeholders toured several inner-city St James communities, while Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams headed a delegation which also toured sections of the parish the following day.

Since then, 200 additional cops have been deployed to the parish where limited curfews have been imposed in sections of the division.