SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Councillor Christopher Williams (Jamaica Labour Party, Santa Cruz Division) is urgently calling on the Government to connect the closed circuit television cameras (CCTVs) in this south-central town to the country’s national surveillance system JamaicaEye.

“The cameras in Santa Cruz are not connected as yet, so, in terms of crime fighting right now, they are not assisting the police. The cameras in Black River are up and running. The ones in Santa Cruz are not on the system,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

Williams’ plea follows Saturday’s armed robbery of a Chinese-operated farm store in Santa Cruz, which resulted in an undetermined sum of cash being stolen.

Head of the St Elizabeth police Superintendent Dwight Daley said two men have since been arrested in connection with the robbery, which took place mid-morning.

He said the robbers had also held up a motorcyclist and taken his motorcycle.

“They abandoned the motorcycle at a certain section of the town where it is believed that a motor vehicle was waiting for them,” said Daley.

This latest incident follows the June 2 armed robbery of a Courts Ready Cash office in the town.

Williams believes if the surveillance cameras were operational, the police would be better able to respond.

“A lot of these robberies that took place, for example, the one by Ready Cash, you could have cameras to track these criminals through the town and at least have an idea of the direction that they actually went,” he said.

“The one that took place at the Chinese farm store, maybe it could also assist, you could see the direction and use the same camera to identify something about these criminals,” he said.

In March 2021, a security guard was killed and two others injured in a shoot-out with gunmen during an attempted robbery at a Western Union outlet in Santa Cruz, which prompted Williams to call for JamaicaEye in the town.

He said the cameras were installed in the town last year after the incident.

“I don’t see the sense that those cameras were put in place to assist the crime fighting, and if after so long they are not up and running then we have to be very concerned about that,” he said.

Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang, in his sectoral debate presentation on June 1, pointed out that cameras were installed in Santa Cruz, among other towns across the country.

“To date we have instituted some 850 CCTV cameras in Kingston, May Pen, Mandeville, Ocho Rios, Negril, Montego Bay, Spanish Town, Santa Cruz and Black River. This year we will complete another 300, primarily in the Corporate Area – downtown Kingston, Stony Hill – but we are currently examining the feasibility and the financial viability of building out the entire system, because it works extremely well and has proved itself vital as a tool in assisting the police,” he said.

“We have seen some significant impact in the Corporate Area where it is established and we are therefore looking at how fast we can get this done… We will establish the surveillance system across the entire island,” he added.

However, Williams is calling on Dr Chang to see to it that the cameras in Santa Cruz are connected to JamaicaEye swiftly.

“I am basically calling on the national security minister to take up this one himself to ensure that we get these cameras up and running in Santa Cruz, because we don’t want to go back to where we are coming from where every week there is a robbery and at the end of the day people [criminals] just feel as though they can escape easily. Let us start fighting these criminals using technology,” he said.

Williams said, however, that he had been informed that there was a challenge with a telecommunications provider to connect the cameras to JamaicaEye.

He added that the system is important to equip the police with greater surveillance of the town.

“I am not saying that if the cameras are up and running it will solve the crime problem, but at least it will give the police another option to take on these criminal elements,” he said.