MONTEGO BAY, St James — Councillor Anthony Murray (Jamaica Labour Party, Rose Hall Division) has asked the police to join his push to curb domestic violence within the St James communities he represents.

Murray, who made the appeal during Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation, indicated that he has already reached out to other stakeholders.

“In my space, especially in Barrett Town, I am seeing an increase in domestic-related cases and so I am appealing now to the police to see if we can partner to put in some social intervention,” he said.

“I have been communicating with the justices of the peace and the pastors within the space to see if we can have a meeting and I am reaching out to the police now to join us on that approach to see if we can reach these residents,” Murray explained.

Barrett Town has a history of violence but, as with the rest of St James, major crimes are down. Up to May 8 last year the parish had recorded 55 murders while only 19 murders have been for the corresponding period this year.

Murray said, while he is pleased with the downward trend, he is concerned about the number of incidents in his division that are linked to domestic quarrels.

“Within the last three months most of the cases that happened in that space would have been domestic related,” Murray declared.

He thinks intervention could help tackle the problem before it gets worse.

“I am reaching out to you now to see if we can partner to see how well we can tackle that problem and that would help on keeping the numbers down,” he said to head of the St James Police Division’s Superintendent Mercedes Currie.

The senior cop told Murray the police force is familiar with the issues he highlighted.

“We are aware of the Barrett Town situation and the uptick of domestic-related challenges that are in that space. Our community safety and security unit [has] been doing some work in the space,” she assured.

“[It’s] maybe not as aggressive as you would want but whenever that partnership meeting is ready, we… have a team of persons that are willing and ready. We have been doing some work through… all the schools in the area. We have our school resource officers who are very active in that space,” she said.

She reiterated the police’s willingness to work with political representative and other stakeholders.

“We are ready for the partnership because this is something that we promote: partnership,” Currie said.