THE St James police are targeting prostitutes operating in sections of Montego Bay, as part of a raft of initiatives aimed at maintaining law and order in the resort city during the Yuletide season.

According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in charge of the parish, Steve McGregor, several prostitutes, who “form a part of the chaos in the township,” were arrested over the weekend and slapped with various charges.

“They hang out on the corner of Harbour Street; they were taken into custody Friday night and were charged for different offences. We will continue to go at them and we will continue to go get them,” emphasised SSP McGregor.

He said lawmen will also pursue another group of the ‘ladies of the night’ operating along Gloucester Avenue, also known as the “Hip Strip”.

“There are some that are also on the Hip Strip that we will be targeting. We are going at that indiscipline, that indiscipline that pervades in the parish [St James], and Montego Bay is where it is exhibited more than anything else, the illegal taxi operators, markets on wheels, cash for gold people….” declared SSP McGregor.

“It is just a quagmire of indiscipline that exists in the town and we are going at it as we enter the Christmas period.”

McGregor also told the Jamaica Observer West that there will be a strong deployment of cops who will monitor the business centre of the city during the Yuletide season.

“We have crafted an operational plan for the Christmas period where we will have over 90 per cent of our police officers out on the road. We have scaled down dramatically all of our other activities to get more police on the streets,” he revealed.

“We have beats at Fairview, we have beats in the town. Our bicycle patrol, our motor bikes, all of them are out in the streets as we go into Christmas, because we know everything gravitates around the township so we have to police it as best we can to reassure the public and to make them know that the town is safe for them to come in and do their business.”

The St James divisional commander noted that “in recent weeks” the township has been saturated with members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Defence Force, a move aimed at arresting the rampant indiscipline manifesting in and around the St James capital.

“Montego Bay is like the oasis for the parish. Everyone feeds off Montego Bay and everyone passes through Montego Bay somewhere or the other. So we have been doing our town sweeps and we have been locking down the city and we will continue right into the Christmas season and beyond,” he explained.

He was, however, quick to point out that members of his team will not be daunted in the face of strong resistance from individuals who are set in their unruly ways.

“Right now it is a challenge because it is a very undisciplined township and the town has been allowed to behave this way for some time, so the fact that we are now tightening the noose on them as it relates to their behavioural pattern, we are getting a challenge from them. But we are up to the task and we are going to police the township the way that we are doing because we are finding that this is sending a good message to the general parish as it relates to discipline,” argued the senior cop.

And in the neighbouring parish of Trelawny, Head of the Police Division, Superintendent Clive Blair, has also revealed plans to relieve some of his officers from desk duties to patrol the streets of Falmouth and other small towns across the parish over the festive season.

“For example, those officers who are assigned to specialised areas, they will be taken out and placed in the towns. We are going to increase our foot and motorised patrols. So we will be doing town sweeps like in the major towns where we have police on foot patrol arresting and charging persons for minor and major offences. This will reduce criminal activities for the Yuletide season,” Superintendent Blair explained.