Westmoreland top cop calls for JamaicaEye intervention
WITH WESTMORELAND experiencing yet another upsurge in murders and shootings, Superintendent Robert Gordon, the police commander for the parish, says the police are in need of an extra eye, in the JamaicaEye programme, to beef up their crimefighting capacity.
After a lull in murders towards the end of last year, more than 30 persons have been shot and killed by marauding criminals since the start of the year, creating a fresh wave of fear and concern among the parish’s law-abiding citizens, especially in Savannala-Mar, the parish capital.
“The township is void of cameras such as those in the JamaicaEye programme which would help us significantly in terms of our crime management,” said Gordon, in his appeal for the installation of closedcircuit televisions (CCTV) systems at key locations in the parish.
“Not only for Savanna-la-Mar, but I would recommend that cameras be placed in the Grange Hill area as well,”continued Gordon. “Those two areas need to be looked at seriously and outfitted under the JamaicaEye project.”
According to Gordon, CCTV under the JamaicaEye programme would serve as another critical tool in the police’s effort to better manage the parish and, in so doing, improve its capacity to promote growth, driven by the use of technology. “In any society where you wish to grow, technology must play a part in the process,” explained Gordon. “Places in Jamaica and elsewhere where they (CCTV) have been installed, research shows their effectiveness in crime-fighting.”
Meanwhile, the Westmoreland business community, which is quite worried about the recent crime spike in the parish, is having mixed views on whether or not installing cameras across the parish will help the police to be more effective in battling the crime monster.
“We are happy for the idea of having a camera system in the parish, because we feel it will help to identify persons who are carrying out these wrongful acts,” said Moses Chybar, president of the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“Business owners are also open to giving the police access to their CCTV on a needs basis,” the chamber boss added.
“In any society where you wish to grow, technology must play a part in the process. Places ... where they (CCTV) have been installed, research shows their effectiveness in crime-fighting.”
Chybar further noted that while there is general consensus on the part of the members of the chamber, there seems to be a wait-and-see approach on the part of a few members.
“There are some who are a little reserved, largely because they are not fully aware of what JamaicaEye is and how it works,” said Chybar.
The JamaicaEye surveillance system was designed to operate on a public-private partnership arrangement, where government-installed cameras work in tandem with closed-circuit equipment installed by business owners and other private entities. Both sets of cameras feed footage into a centralised bank for use by the security forces in responding to acts of criminality. JamaicaEye, which is operated under the auspices of the Ministry of National Security, was officially launched in 2018. Since the launch of the programme, the Government has installed CCTV systems in Montego Bay, St James; Ocho Rios, St Ann; May Pen, Clarendon; as well as some sections of Kingston and St Andrew.
Three years ago, the full roll-out of the project was slated to cost approximately $3 billion over two years, ending in 2020. It was highlighted as part of the security ministry’s five-pillar crime-reduction strategy.
Efforts to get a response from the Ministry of National Security concerning plans to bring Westmoreland on the radar of the JamaicaEye project were unsuccessful.