Police to go after Criminals in St. James

Commissioner of Police, Owen Ellington, has said that the St. James police will be relentless in going after the criminals, which continue to wreak havoc in the parish.
He said that measures are being put in place to contain the violence including “security and stability operations in the troubled communities.”
“We are going after the criminals; we have a plan of action working with. We have caught up with some of them already while some are on the run, but what I can assure Montegonians of is that they are not going to have to put up with these criminals for much longer, because we are going to be relentless in our pursuit to get them,” the Police Commissioner stated.
He was speaking to journalists last week, following a meeting with Montego Bay businessmen and other stakeholders in the parish, which included Minister of National Security Minister, Hon. Dwight Nelson. The closed door meeting was to discuss the increasing crime situation in the parish and Montego Bay in particular.
The Commissioner identified the illegal acquisition of money as the root cause of most of the crime in the parish, noting that whenever there is conflict between those involved, they always resort to violence to solve their problems.
“They cannot come and report it to the police out of fear of self-incrimination, so what they do is resort to self-help, and self-help for them is violence,” he pointed out.
He said that most of the murders that take place under these conditions are being done by persons who know each other, and know about each other.
The Commissioner issued an appeal for residents to tell what they know about such activity and to talk to their friends and relatives about the risks of getting involved in criminal activity.
“As long as there is one individual in any household involved in crime they are exposing the entire household to risks. Crime does not pay,” he stated.