SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Councillor Christopher Williams (Jamaica Labour Party, Santa Cruz Division) says with more business transactions being done during the festive season, this south-central town is being increasingly preyed on by lurking criminals.

“People are traumatised based on the reality and they are very concerned about what is happening. This has been happening for a while. I must say the police presence in Santa Cruz can be better in the sense that we need more officers in the space. The ones that are there we see them, but when the town is this crowded [and with] different turn-offs, it is going to be difficult for the police officers that are in Santa Cruz now,” Williams told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

His comments followed a daring mid-morning robbery of an undetermined sum of cash from a woman leaving a financial institution in Santa Cruz on Wednesday.

Reports suggest that two men, one armed, pounced on the woman and stole a bag from her and fired shots while making their escape. There were no reports of anyone being injured.

Efforts to get a response from the St Elizabeth police were unsuccessful up to press time Wednesday.

Williams, who had been vocal on issues of security in Santa Cruz for years, said there needs to be more boots on the ground.

“I think we need more police officers [and] it is a shortcoming that I see right now. We need more officers moving about in the space, especially this time of the year going into the festive season we are going to have a lot of people in the town,” he said.

“People are going to be coming from all over; it is a central town where a lot of people come to do business this time of the year, so criminal elements are going to be lurking to prey on hard-working citizens,” he added.

Earlier this year, Williams called on the Government to increase its pace of connecting closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) in Santa Cruz to the country’s national surveillance system, JamaicaEye, resulting in the Ministry of National Security signing a contract in June to have the cameras functional.