MONTEGO BAY St James — The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) is recommending the establishment of a Special Task Force to put a lid on the mounting murder tally across the island, especially in St James.

According to the PNP’s suggestion, the task force should embody elements of the security forces and set out to: identify, build the evidence, apprehend and convict those people who are the leading purveyors of violent crimes.

“…We also think that there is urgent need for what I might call a special task force involving all the critical elements of the security forces: the JCF, MOCA, JDF that sets out to identify, build the evidence, apprehend and convict those persons who are the leading purveyors of violent criminality or murder at the present time,” Opposition leader Dr Peter Phillips noted.

“Those are lessons that Jamaica has learned in its past. Simply put, the best and most effective method of reducing violent crime is to identify those responsible and bring them to book and convict them before the courts and take them off the streets. And that certainly is something that is urgently needed at the present time,” he added.

Dr Phillips was on Saturday afternoon speaking at a media briefing following discussions with members of the Montego Bay business community at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa regarding the troubling spate of crime and violence in Montego Bay and St James.

Phillips, who led an Opposition team, which included Shadow Minister on National Security Fitz Jackson; Shadow Minister on Tourism Dr Wykeham McNeill; Senator Noel Sloley and PNP executive member Noel Sloley Jnr bemoaned the escalating murder rate in Montego Bay.

He also rued the fact that with just over two months before the end of the year, the murder tally, at over 250 since January, is already past the overall number recorded in 2016.

“It is clear that, despite the effects of the Zone of Special Operations, violent crime continues unabated in those sections of the parish not included in the zone,” Dr Phillips declared.

“The situation in Montego Bay, with respect to the current upsurge of crime and violence, is untenable. There is a growing level of fear, a growing level of fear which seems to be pervading the entire community and it is certainly not to be dismissed as being just conflict among gang members. It threatens the entire economic foundation of the city; the land values are being affected, ordinary commercial transactions and investment activities being retarded and most of all, families are mourning. They are living in fear because of this wave of violence that is around now.”

Noting that he has been informed of “an apparent breakdown of the public order situation here in St James”, Dr Phillips stressed the urgent need for its restoration.

“This needs to be urgently addressed so that you can have basic order restored. Because it is evident not only in Jamaica, but from all other countries that serious crime thrives on an atmosphere of general social disorder. And so, if you restore order, then you have the greater prospect of being able to isolate the serious criminals and ultimately apprehend them,” the Opposition leader argued.

Meanwhile, President of the Montego Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) T’Shura Gibbs, who indicated that she has written to the Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, followed up with a call for them to engage with the organisation she leads.

“We appreciate that a plan may exist and we want to be party to that. We want to have a say and understand that plan. We are ready and willing to work with the Government, and all key stakeholders on this matter.

However, we cannot speak to something that we do not understand, and so we ask that you meet with us and help us to better understand how we can work together and what support you will need from us,” Gibbs said.

She added that she wanted to see a national policy developed for crime, and specifically one for St James.

Meanwhile, Dr Phillips, who endorsed the call for a national crime policy, pointed to the need, in the medium term, for resources to upgrade anti-crime and intelligence-gathering technologies that can assist in raising conviction rates.

“There is also need for an effective plan to allow cases to be heard more speedily in the courts and for us as a country to identify a legislative agenda which the entire Parliament can support, to assist the security forces in being more effective in apprehending criminals,” the Opposition Leader argued.