MONTEGO BAY, St James — Determined to rein in thieves who have been preying on churches in various sections of St James, commanding officer for the parish Senior Superintendent Eron Samuels has given an assurance that nightly patrols will be added to measures already implemented by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

According to Samuels, the police have recorded an increase in sacrilege across St James and in communities just outside the parish.

“We recognised it several weeks ago and we put something in place. We realised it started with different divisions and they have changed a bit in terms of the locations,” said Samuels while addressing Thursday’s regular monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

“We have put a task force in place to try and zoom in to see if we can identify the persons. We strongly believe that they may be persons coming from outside the division based on the fact that it’s cross-border,” the senior cop revealed.

He added that his team members on night patrol have been tasked with paying keen attention to churches and doing their best to visit all the places of worship within their vicinity.

According to Samuels, leery of raising a major alarm, they have been quietly working on the issue and making steady progress.

“We are keen on it and we’re doing what we can to really cauterise it,” he assured the meeting.

Samuels urged residents to assist the police in their efforts to address the situation.

“When you see strange persons within the community please contact the police, let us see if we can hold on to these persons very quickly,” he appealed.

Also during Thursday’s meeting Samuels said there will be increased JCF activity in Barrett Town where there have been a number of worrying incidents recently.

“The Barrett Town police area is an area of concern for us now and we are implementing some curfews and doing some operational activities in order to cauterise that,” he said.

“We have had about four to five major incidents out of this and it is stemming from a dispute; not a gang situation but it involves gangsters,” he added.

Samuels said the intention is to now put the police into what he referred to as “the right places” and intervene in order to “ensure that the community itself can feel safe and secure”.

Councillor Anthony Murray (Jamaica Labour Party, Rose Hall Division) expressed support for the move.

“I know that my space giving you the headache at this time but I want to put on the record that we welcome the initiatives that have been taking place to reduce the possible escalation into what is happening out there in Barrett Hall,” he told Samuels.

“We are planning a community meeting… as well, to see how well we can galvanise the community to bring back peace and calm in the Barrett Hall and the wider Rose Hall Barrett Town police space,” added Murray.

Councillor Anthony Murray (Jamaica Labour Party, Rose Hall Division) making a point during Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.