Photos by Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer
Left: Deputy Superintendent Rudolph Taylor, operations officer for the St. James police. RIGHT: Lee Bailey, deputy director for Caribbean Cruise Shipping Services and Tours.

Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

The crime-fighting efforts of the police in St. James are being undermined by a scarcity of resources, law enforcement officials and civic leaders underscored last week.

The parish, best known for its resort city Montego Bay, has outgrown itself, stakeholders said during an Editors' Forum held at the Gleaner's Western Bureau last Thursday. Furthermore, the current police cadre is woefully inadequate to control the monstrous crime wave now plaguing St. James.

The parish's murder figure has doubled since 2001, moving from 75 to nearly 170 murders so far this year. At least 65 guns have been recovered from crminals and 337 rounds of ammunition.

Active gangs

Police say there are 11 active gangs contributing to the murder trend. They include the notorius Stone Crusher Gang, Tight Pants Crew, Killer Bees and One Order gangs.

The gangs operate in mostly squatter dwellings just outside the capital, now well known for the horrendous murders committed there so far this year.

The communities include Norwood, Granville, Salt Spring, Glendevon, sections of downtown Montego Bay, and Flankers.

Together these communities account for 70 per cent of murders in St. James.

Some of the gangs have managed to create alliances with others to increase their control over sections of the parish, the police add. The Stone Crusher Gang in particular, has merged with two others and has increased its membership to 40.

The gangs fight for weapons, the police say, drugs and sometimes over spoils from lottery scams now plauging the city.

But, speaking at the Editors' Forum, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Rudolph Taylor, said one of the main problems facing the police in St. James is a lack of motorvehicles. Only one vehicle is assigned to the St. James Crime Investigation Bureau which serves 50 policemen and women. Mount Salem police, too, only have one. It services all of six communties including Rose Heights, Farm Heights, Glendevon, South Spring and Green Pond.

"Resources are woeful especially in the area of mobility ... In terms of our patrol fleet, there are three units that are operational now, there are six in the garage," he said.

Two of the vehicles are slated to return from the garage this week. The Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce has donated three vehicles to the police over the last three years, but these are still not enough to effectively man the troubled areas of the parish the police say.

Remote trouble spots

On top of those problems, the police say the remote locations of most trouble spots make it hard for them to effectively police them. The poor conditions of roads, poor lighting, and the propensity of residents to mount blockades all combine to create difficulty for them, DSP Taylor added.

But what is seriously creating difficulty, he said, are corrupt cops in the parish. At least 14 of them have been nabbed in St. James over the last 18 months. They deplete an already-small complement of under 200 cops assigned to protect St. James.

"It (corrupt cops) [has] an impact on the sort of confidence the communities ought to exhibit in terms of giving information," DSP Taylor remarked..

Business stakeholders present at the forum suggested that police posts be placed in the parish's trouble spots. They also recommended a merger of the constabulary and defence forces to more effectively combat crime in the parish.

"What I would like to see is an external operation aimed at the areas where the crimes are repeating itself," said deputy director of the Caribbean Cruise Shipping Services, Lee Bailey. He called for resources to be deployed to the communties. He said police stations are not put in the right places, and so it is easy for criminals to commit heinous crimes without being caught.

"If you have two vehicles in Coral Gardens, and you have a crime in Norwood, all the criminals know you have to drive the two little broken down vehicles from Coral Gardens to Norwood. Crime is their profession and they know what is happening," Bailey argued passionately.

He said Montego Bay businesses also have a role to play by providing more employment for St. James' inner-city people. He noted that too often they are shunned by employers when it becomes apparent where they are from. He said crime was not only the problem of the police and the private sector should support their efforts.

Sharing similar thoughts, President of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, Pauline Reid, said the Government needs to replicate programmes and resources being deployed to Kingston's inner-cities in Montego Bay.

She added that what was perhaps needed is a joint security force to combat crime in St. James.

"I know the police do not have the manpower and equipment. We know that as a fact as a chamber, because we have been working with them. How can we expect the police to combat crime when they are not given the resources?" she says.

Problem areas in St. James and their contribution to murder trends

Community Number of murders Percentage