NEGRIL,Westmoreland — Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has disclosed that the lion’s share of a cohort of 87 new district constables to graduate next month will be deployed to the resort town of Negril.

The remaining portion will be assigned to the second city.

“We have to take action to support and to strengthen the formal security arrangements in your community. As a result I am to advise you that on the 19th of July we will be graduating 87 new district constables to be immediately assigned to Negril and Montego Bay,” Bartlett said.

He was speaking during a tourism stakeholders meeting hosted at Couple’s Swept Away Resort in Negril last week.

At the same time, the tourism minister implored community members to be vigilant and to report illegal activities to the police. Prostitution and the peddling of lifestyle drugs have often dogged the resort town, famous for its seven mile stretch of white sand beach.

“But stakeholders, you can’t ‘see and blind and hear and deaf’ and achieve the safety and security that you are asking for,” he said, reiterating that residents have to report illegal activites “because police eyes can’t be everywhere at the same time”.

“We cannot be illegal and expect to get legal results. So don’t come to us and say next the door neighbour is doing X and we are doing Y; and what we doing is as illegal as what the next door neighbour is doing. So what we are talking about is to not only legitimise our operations in full, but to move from the dark shadows of the informal and get into the light of the formal,” the tourism minister said further.

Meanwhile, Bartlett committed to working with the Westmoreland police to improve their intelligence capabilities with the use of technology.