SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — The Westmoreland police have indicated that while homicides and other criminal activities are trending down in the parish, the state of the roads is hobbling their crime-fighting efforts.

“The bad road condition. It is making our job much more difficult,” stated deputy superintendent of police in charge of administration for Westmoreland, Myrna Ferguson-Campbell.

“Even patrolling becomes more difficult for us when we are not able to traverse the roadway at a certain pace and to go to certain places. So, we too are urging for some fix or some work to be done in all the areas in Westmoreland,” added Ferguson-Campbell.

Her comments came during last Thursday’s Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce and Industry general meeting.

Despite the logistical hurdles posed by the bad roads, the deputy superintendent pointed to significant gains made in beefing up safety in the parish.

“Westmoreland is one of the parishes that enjoyed the highest degree [of reduction] in terms of crime and criminality for Jamaica last year,” noted Ferguson-Campbell.

“For this year, we are doing even better because at this point, we in Westmoreland have seen a decrease of close to 50 per cent — and that’s for overall crime. For murder, which was the fright — murders and shootings — we are seeing a decrease of 45 per cent,” she added.

The senior cop said the police welcome the public’s continued support in keeping crime under control in the parish. She said community intelligence has been vital in preventing major robberies and property crimes.

“Our intelligence apparatus — and as I said, it is through our residents who passed on information to us — we were able to take some of our breakers and the persons who commit the major robberies in the parish [into custody],” revealed Ferguson-Campbell.

“We are used to people being shot from their motorcycles; business places being robbed. Last week, if we did not arrest four of these persons, business persons would be crying in the parish because [the wrongdoers] had organised and thought that the parish was too quiet for a while and said they are going to give us some work. But, we managed to take them into custody and were able to charge some of them,” said Ferguson-Campbell.

“We will continue to foster better relationships and partnerships going forward. We ask that you continue to liaise with our police officers,” she urged.

The issue of poor road conditions that impact productivity in the parish was a topic also raised by president of the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce and Industry Moses Chybar.

“It takes you so long to drive a mile that you could almost reach Kingston in some instances. And we really, really, really need to get the roads repaired. Every direction you go, leaving or entering Savanna-la-Mar, it’s an issue. Sav to Negril, Sav to Grange Hill, Sav to Ferris, Whitehouse, going that direction, [and] Petersfield. It’s just not acceptable. And to add to that is the issue with the wear and tear on your vehicle, especially at night,” argued Chybar.