MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Political leaders in southern Manchester and south-eastern St Elizabeth say they are alarmed at the spate of crimes in communities bordering the south-central parishes.

Councillor Layton Smith (People’s National Party [PNP], Myersville Division), Councillor Cetany Holness (Jamaica Labour Party [JLP], Junction Division), Member of Parliament for Manchester Southern Robert Chin and educator Omar Robinson, who is aspiring to represent the People’s National Party in the Alligator Pond Division, say criminals have been driving fear into residents over the last two weeks.

The latest incident in Manchester resulted in a businessman being hospitalised after he was shot at his establishment in New Forest on Monday night by two gunmen travelling on a motorcycle in what reports suggest was an attempted robbery.

In St Elizabeth, residents of Stephen’s Run woke up to find Tyrone Morgan, 31, with a gunshot wound to his head close to the entrance of his spouse’s home in the area on Tuesday morning.

The surge in crime in traditionally low-crime communities is occurring even as there is an imminent change in police leadership in St Elizabeth and Manchester.

Head of the Manchester Police Division Superintendent Lloyd Darby is moving to Portland and will be replaced by Superintendent Shane McCalla from the National Police College of Jamaica.

Portland’s top cop, Superintendent Kenneth Chin, will now take charge of St Elizabeth as Superintendent Dwight Daley moves from the ‘bread basket’ parish to the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB).

The new assignments become effective on July 25.

Smith said the situation in the Myersville Division and beyond is getting worse and has forced some business owners to close their doors early.

“…Too much is happening right now and I keep on saying it that the southern part of St Elizabeth is getting out of control with robberies, break-ins, shootings and murder. There must be a stop to it. You can’t be comfortable any more again. This part used to be quiet where people want to come and enjoy themselves and live, but now it is not happening. The bars are closing up very early now,” he said on Tuesday.

“Just last week a lady closed her bar and was going home. She was held up and robbed of [more than] $300,000; if it continues like this soon and very soon many of us can’t leave our house, that is how serious it is,” he added.

Councillor Holness said it is a worrying trend and blamed landlords who do not do background checks on tenants for welcoming strangers in communities near the Manchester/St Elizabeth border.

“I am calling on the people of the different communities to be mindful of their surroundings and to be mindful of the strangers, because it is the same people in our community that are putting up [with] strangers. A lot of our residents, who own apartment buildings and houses, are renting these strangers. The [landlords] don’t ask the question where these people work as long as they are getting their [rent] for their apartment building or houses,” said Holness.

He said residents have become too “friendly” to strangers in their communities.

“We are too facilitative and we are, in the interim, facilitating criminals and these criminals are now turning on us. Everybody on the southern side is now running for cover. Everybody is now talking about it, it is we the citizens of the different communities that have created this scenario,” said Holness.

He called on the police “to do what is necessary to capture the perpetrators of crimes” and implored residents to share information and evidence of criminal activities with officers.

Chin said the crime is getting out of hand following a spate of incidents in southern Manchester.

“It is really sad what is happening. What I notice happening is that you have a migration… of criminals into Manchester. I realise that they are doing it and they are prevalent on the borders. I need citizens to be aware of new people that are coming into their areas,” he said.

He joined Holness’ call for residents to unite and get rid of criminals in their communities.

He added that the police need to come up with new tactics to pursue criminals who study the police’s mobilisation and resource constraints.

“I am calling on the police to change how they operate, because the Alligator Pond, Junction and Nain police stations may have one vehicle [each], but when the criminals are aware that the vehicle is at the station, they know how soon the [police] can respond,” he said.

“[Criminals] know they have a lot of time before a marked police vehicle can get to the area where they are having their criminal activity,” he added while calling for there to be more unmarked vehicle patrols by the police.

“… When criminals go on a robbery spree you know that if you don’t catch them they are going to try it again,” said Chin.

Robinson said the fear among residents has left communities tense.

“We really need to hear from the officials at the highest level…We need them to come and let the people hear what they will do now to alleviate all of the fears that we are having,” he said.

“People are so pensive right now in terms of when to be out and even if you are in your household, you are feeling scared by the whole spate of activities in the Alligator Pond Division,” he said.

He pointed to crimes being committed in communities bordering the Alligator Pond Division.

“When you look at it, just two days ago (Saturday) there was another shooting in Comma Pen. A [man] was shot in his neck after they tried to rob another place, so where next, who next? Those are the type of questions the residents are asking and we need some answers,” he said.

“Up to this point we haven’t seen anything from any authority or any official to say these are the plans that we are going to put in place for people to really feel safe again,” he added.

Earlier this month, Police Commission Major General Antony Anderson said there are some police recruits who will be graduating soon and declared his intention to utilise them in shoring up divisions such as St Elizabeth and Manchester that are seeing an upsurge in crime.