OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Councillor Ian Isaacs (Exchange Division, Jamaica Labour Party) has suggested that the police consider adding drones to their crime-fighting response and traffic management in Ocho Rios.

His call comes after a close relative was recently robbed in the town centre.

“The congested towns are a challenge and it brings me to ask why is it that the police is not utilising drone technology. If an individual got robbed — say for instance at 8 Rivaz Plaza — and a phone call is made to Ocho Rios Police Station, immediately the drone could be launched because the victim give a description of who robbed them and there would also be some information of the direction in which they went,” said Isaacs.

He was speaking Thursday during the monthly meeting of the St Ann Municipal Corporation. Drones, he said, would give law enforcers a better chance of nabbing hoodlums.

“Just imagine, the police taking on all that traffic to go through the town can’t be easy — the team should be easy to mobilise. With the drone it can go as far as five kilometres, take pictures of licence plate and everything. We should be using that as a crime-fighting agent,” he urged.

He also touted the technology as a traffic management tool.

“Traffic… has to be managed from miles away to see where there are indisciplined drivers and where the knots are along the roadway,” Isaacs opined.

In response, Acting Superintendent of Police David White, who is in charge of policing in St Ann, said law enforcers rely on cameras linked to the Jamaica Eye project, which has seen some positive results.

“Millions of dollars was spent to increase the cameras so there is no doubt that we are getting there. In Clarendon we have used the Jamaica Eye camera to treat with crime fighting in May Pen. There are cameras in Ocho Rios but recommendations can be made to install more cameras as a part of the crime-fighting mechanism,” suggested White.

Speaking specifically to the call for the use of drones, he noted that while the police force uses drones during special operations, any move to expand their use for traffic-related issues is not a decision for the police force to make.

“We do have drones in the force, so if we are doing a specific operation we have drone operators come in and monitor them. We have also done operations here in Ocho Rios using drones but… using drones to monitor traffic is a policy decision, and Government would have to come in make that decision,” White explained.