MONTEGO BAY, St James — Mayor of Montego Bay Councillor Richard Vernon and St James’s top cop Superintendent Eron Samuels are urging stakeholders to get on board with an ongoing push to keep murders in the parish below 100 this year.

St James ended last year with 63 murders fewer than 2023, the largest decline in the country; but it still had the most murders now Vernon and Samuels want the numbers to keep trending down.

“This target is not only for the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) but for the respective agencies in their roles in creating a safer space,” Vernon told Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

Samuels gave a commitment that his team will work closely with locally elected officials.

“I’ve started talking to particular councillors to ensure that we start looking at how we can do activities within the space to ensure that we continue the reductions that are being seen,” he said.

Both men agreed that residents are also key to successfully achieving the goal.

“We have to work together. I’m urging the community groups, the citizens associations, the community development committees to work within the communities in such a way that this target is even more achievable; provide the necessary information that the police need to work with,” the mayor appealed.

“Where you have a good relationship with your local representatives, enhance that relationship, provide the information on the necessary platform for us to achieve this,” he urged.

Vernon also used the opportunity to appeal to residents to explore alternatives to a life of crime, such as pursuing a university education or vocational training.

“We are encouraging them [to] access the business grants, skills training; we have parenting consultations, we have so many things happening within the space that more so-called unattached youngsters can get attached to and become productive men and women of this country,” he continued.