By Garwin Davis, Assistant News EditorTHE GOVERNMENT'S anti-harassment programme, designed to minimise the problem of visitor harassment in the resort towns, is in jeopardy, The Gleaner has learnt.
Tourism interests have expressed strong opposition to reports that the Ministry of Finance is proposing to cut or significantly reduce the more than 120 security patrol officers stationed in the island's resort towns because of budgetary constraints.
Sources tell The Gleaner that the move is strongly opposed by Portia Simpson Miller, Minister of Tourism, and has angered business operators in the tourist areas.
The operators are worried that visitor harassment, which had been significantly minimised, could again escalate, further throwing the industry into turmoil.
"This is absurd," said Mark Kerr-Jarrett, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce. "With all the problems we have had with crime and harassment, how could they even begin to contemplate doing away with the resort patrol. This only goes to show the great disconnection that exists between Government officials in Kingston and people in the resort areas. I simply cannot believe we are going down this road again. The Montego Bay community and Chamber of Commerce will strongly resist this movement which can only further lead to catastrophe in the already fragile tourism sector," he said.
According to the sources, the Finance Ministry recently told the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), under whose jurisdiction the resort patrol falls, that budgetary constraints necessitated a major overhaul of the resort patrol, indicating that the programme may inevitably have to be scrapped. This comes on the heels of a 20 per cent reduction to the programme last year.
Finance Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, was said to be off the island. Other Ministry officials would not comment. Mrs. Simpson Miller was also unavailable for comment yesterday. She, however, said last week that she would be opposed to anything which would threaten to "undermine the level of security in our resort towns." The Minister is also expected to make her views known during the Sectoral Debate in Parliament at the end of the month.
Last year's reduction was also strongly opposed. Christopher Honeywell, then managing director of the Port Security Corps, who was also directly in charge of the resort patrol officers, described the reduction as "cutting off one's nose to spite one's face". He said "there have been several reductions in the past and we have told them that for the unit to be effective, we couldn't have any further cuts. It's amazing that there is even talk of minimising a unit that has been so effective in reducing visitor harassment."
The resort patrol was introduced four years ago as an élite tourism unit designed to combat tourist-related problems. It came at a time when visitor harassment was seen as being at an all-time high and cruise ship operators, unable to cope with the complaints from their passengers, were threatening to pull out.
With Richard King, then head of the unit, given the mandate by the Government to clean up the resort towns at all cost, an all-out assault was launched against visitor harassment. It immediately yielded results. Hefty $50,000 fines were brought against harassers and repeat offenders were subjected to stiff sentences. For the period 1998 to 2002, nearly 1,000 persons were arrested and charged with visitor harassment in the tourist towns combined, as opposed to 140 during the period 1995 to 1997.
Mr. King did not have his contract renewed by the Government after it expired three years ago. Contacted yesterday, Carl Miller, who was appointed anti-harassment czar nearly three years ago, was tight-lipped about the current situation, noting that it was being "handled at a ministerial level."
"Without the resort patrol, what we will see are the streets again being flooded with harassers," said Sanju Chatani, owner of the Taj Mahal Plaza in Ocho Rios. "As it is right now, the presence of the resort patrol officers on the streets is mainly what is keeping many of the undesirables away from the tourists. Take them away and what we are essentially doing is opening the flood gates," he said.
Josef Forstmayr, Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association president, said on Monday that he had heard reports that the resort patrol programme would be affected but that he did not have enough information at this time to offer any meaningful comments.
Cruise officials have also been impressed by the patrols.
"We have seen a reduction in the number of complaints from our passengers regarding harassment," said Brendan Corrigan, vice-president of operations at Carnival Cruise Lines, in an earlier interview. "Things are a lot better now than before," he said.
