MANCHESTER, Jamaica — Acting head of the Manchester police division Deputy Superintendent Lloyd Darby says lawmen have observed an increase in parties following the relaxation of measures put in place to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“We continue to be vigilant in enforcing the DRMA (Disaster Risk Management Act). Since the relaxing of the measures by the prime minister last week, we have seen an uptick in social gatherings and parties,” Darby told yesterday’s sitting of the Manchester Municipal Corporation.

He revealed that 425 people have appeared before the court in relation to breaches of the DRMA.

“Since the enactment of the DRMA, we have arrested and charged 358 persons. We have served 67 summonses. An overall of 425 persons have been brought before the courts for breaching this Act,” he said.

“We have secured significant convictions and a lot of guilty pleas. We just want to continue to ask our citizens to abide by the DRMA, allow us the police to concentrate on our crime situation rather than [us] having to be behind our citizens enforcing the laws, so that they can protect themselves against COVID-19,” he added.

Kasey Williams