Black Immigrant Daily News
A comprehensive, multi-agency public order campaign led by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), has been under way in Montego Bay, St James since Monday morning, and is set to continue and be intensified over the next 90 days.
The police are reporting a successful start to the first phase of the exercise that has been dubbed ‘Operation Restore Paradise: Public Order Reset in Montego Bay city’. Phase one is to last for 14 days.
The massive campaign that got under way about 6am, saw members of the St James Police Division and the Transport Authority (TA) taking off illegal vendors off the streets and clamping down on rogue taxi operators who have long been a collective source of chaos in the city centre.
An instance of the zero-tolerance approach that has been taken to public order issues in Montego Bay since Monday of this week.
“The initiative is a multi-agency approach dealing with the public order issues that we face within the municipality, and includes members of the Transport Authority, the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB), with support from the Area One Special Ops team. We have also brought out some justices of the peace to help us. The municipal corporation is also out with municipal police,” said Superintendent Eron Samuels, operations officer for the St James Police Division, on Monday morning.
He said further in the week, a mobile police post is to brought on board the campaign.
“We also will be putting in place during the latter part of this week, a mobile police station that will be equipped with (360-degree) cameras that will capture images of what is taking place in Sam Sharpe Square. That will also serve as a hub for all the members of this multi-agency approach,” outlined Samuels.
He added that as the week progresses, members of other agencies, including Jamaica Public Service (JPS), the National Water Commission (NWC), the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), are to join the initiative.
“What we intend to do is to educate the members of the public who need to look about their vendors’ licences, and persons who need to organise themselves in terms of the transportation system. The Transport Authority will be here with their compliance bus, where you can sign up for your green plate, red plate, etcetera,” the senior cop explained.
At mid-week, Divisional Commander, Senior Superintendent Vernon Ellis, reinforced the message and advised that the campaign is aimed at bringing back the city streets from the public order crisis that is presently there.
He said the overall problem would have stemmed from one vendor breaking the law and getting away with it for some time, one taxi operator moving outside of the assigned area and not being prosecuted, “which, over time, have led to many others following, and now that sort of public disorder has become quite entrenched on some of the city’s streets, and clearly needs to be nipped in the bud.”
Members of the Quick Response Team supporting the ongoing public order drive in Montego Bay, St James.
His plan is strategically employing the support of a wide cross-section of public and civic agencies and organisations “to ensure that the campaign is sustainable, systematic and inclusive of the range of stakeholder inputs that will produce broad changes, improvement and critically, civility among the present offenders.”
Ellis said the chaos on critical streets in the city fosters more major crimes, so public order within the general space conversely contributes to lower rates of crime overall, including the more serious offences, within the applicable spaces and even further afield, due to the positive chain effect of improved civility and personal pride among citizens in general.
“We intend to get back to basics and reform the overall space, bring back public order and seek to give the persons involved an opportunity to be part of a productive and orderly system, instead of a chaotic situation that exposes all to some undesirable circumstances, including street violence, gross public inconvenience, road rage and other negatives,” elaborated Ellis.
‘Smooth sailing’ conditions for both motorists and pedestrians on some normally crowded streets in Montego Bay in St James.
He said the city’s official transport centre on Barnett Street is to be strongly supported to be restored as the place of central focus in relation to public passenger vehicle (PPV) operations within the city, and a place of standard, orderly operations.
“The vendors will need to fit into structured and approved areas and arrangements, and the taxi drivers and other PPV operators will need to connect with the transport centre in their operations, as the days of taking over some street and street corners, service stations and sections of commercial centres are fast coming to an end,” said the parish top cop.
He added that the structured, systemic and broad-based campaign will prove to be difficult to defy, hence the anticipated success of the initiative that could become useful for other urban centres across the country.
“This plan, with its range of matrixes and layers of implementation, is not a regular venture, and it will be taking all and sundry involved way outside of the proverbial box. So the advice to those whose activities have largely contributed to the problems that are being addressed, is to seek to find a workable place within the legitimate system, rather than hoping to remain untouched inside the problem syndrome,” urged Ellis.
He said ultimately, the public order, once full established and made entrenched in the city’s daily life, is to be maintained through a four-plank approach that involves continued education, monitoring of the applicable spaces, reporting of violations, and accountability among the broad-based stakeholder groups that are to be involved.
Along with members of the private sector, the participating agencies include the following:
The JCF/Jamaica Defence Force (JDF)The Municipal PoliceNational Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA)The Island Traffic AuthorityThe Transport AuthorityThe National Waste Management Authority (NSWMA)The Ministry of Health and Wellness (Public Health Department)The Planning AuthorityThe St James Municipal Corporation (Roads and Works)Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS)National Water Commission (NWC)The Customs Enforcement TeamMembers of the Law Magistrates’ Association
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