MONTEGO BAY, St James – Business sector leaders across western Jamaica have welcomed the recent announcement by Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson that the quick response motorcycle squad now operating in St James will be boosted and replicated across the Area One Police Division, but have indicated that more needs to be done to cauterise crime in the region.

“We recognise that we have specific challenges in western Jamaica and we are taking steps to address them. We have boosted our quick response team in St James and plans are well advanced to establish quick response teams in the other parishes out west,” the police commissioner told a press briefing on Tuesday.

Major General Anderson also indicated that some 60 police officers are currently undergoing advanced tactical training in preparation for the strengthening of the Operation Support Team (OST) in Area One.

“There are 60 members currently under training ahead of being deployed to Area One, and this is advanced tactical training. This will significantly boost our ability to respond to the challenges we are having in the western division,” he added.

But, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry Oral Heaven, who welcomed the commissioner’s announcement, however, highlighted that the police hierarchy needs to do more in western Jamaica.

“I think personally the hierarchy can do more for the western parishes. And I will further add that members of the business community, we do all that we can to assist in crime fighting with whatever resources that we can get through the business community to help with crime fighting. We will do so because they lack resources, it is obvious that they lack resources,” Heaven told the Jamaica Observer West during a telephone interview shortly after Commissioner Anderson’s announcement.

President of the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce and Industry Moses Chybar said he wants to see the underlying factors that impact crime be addressed.

“I would have said this umpteen times, and I will say it again, that increasing or strengthening the police force, as much as it is necessary, it is only addressing the symptoms. And I still feel that we are not addressing properly the root cause of the problem that we face and it has to be an approach that is more holistic. Yes, based on where we are, we need the additional security forces, we need that. I am not against it, I am for it 100 per cent. But we must move more swiftly to look at the underlying causes,” Chybar argued.

“I would say, without a shadow of a doubt, that we need a stronger security presence, in not only Westmoreland, but Jamaica. I am seeing where there has been quite a bit of murders and other forms of violent crimes in many parishes right now, not just western. But it is really worse in western parishes, so that is welcomed news.”

President of the Negril Chamber of Commerce Richard Wallace also welcomed the police commissioner’s announcement.

“I am very pleased to hear that these plans are coming. We have long asked for more boots on the ground in the area because we realise that that is a part of the problem, not having enough officers. So it is welcomed news and we are very happy. We wish them success with this new strategy that they plan to apply. So absolutely good news,” Wallace said.

Meanwhile, Heaven, who also embraced the new developments, was particularly enthused over the strengthening of the quick response team in St James and its expansion across Area One, which encompasses the parishes of Trelawny, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland.

“The quick response has worked and is working and I heard arguments that it would be expanded across the island. So I am happy that it is expanding across western Jamaica. We need all the help we can. Our police down here are doing all they can with the resources that they have available. So if more resources are made available to the police in western Jamaica, they will be better able to fight crime,” Heaven told the Observer West.

The introduction of a quick response motorbike squad, initiated by the St James divisional commander, Superintendent Vernon Ellis, in 2019, has been proven to be a very useful part of the police crime-fighting tool kit in St James.

In fact, as far back as November 2020, speaking at a press conference in Montego Bay, the police commissioner noted that the quick response team in the parish was also to be credited for the downward trend in crimes in the parish.

“It was just a year ago when we did the launch of the quick response team in the parish, a motorcycle-based team, and their effectiveness has even exceeded our expectations of what we hoped that they would be able to do over the period that they have been operating,” the commissioner said then.

“It’s clear that the model of that needs to be extended to other places across the island, including Kingston, and we are in the process of acquiring the necessary assets to do that. So, it’s not too long from now that a similar sort of team, probably larger, will be in the Kingston Metropolitan Area.”