Mobile Police Unit Commissioned into Service in Montego Bay

The island’s first Mobile Command and Control Police Unit, complete with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, was commissioned into service in Montego Bay yesterday (Nov.4).
The vehicle, which is the first of five for the island’s resort areas, was acquired at a cost of approximately $23.5 million through the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), and is a project of the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the Ministry of National Security.
Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, who commissioned the vehicle into service on the grounds of the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), said that the unit will be used to curtail incidences of tourist harassment, drug peddling and other illegal activities within the resort city.
The mobile unit, he said, has the capacity to survey a four-mile radius, and this capacity will be enhanced by the connection of closed circuit television cameras to utility poles along the Montego Bay ‘Hip Strip’ in the first instance, and then other areas throughout the city.
Noting that the objective is to ensure the safety of visitors and locals, Mr. Bartlett said: “A safe society is good for business, a safe society is good for all of us.”
“I want Montego Bay to recognize, as Jamaica must know, that we are going to be relentless in our pursuit of those who would continue to give Jamaica a bad name and to damage Brand Jamaica on the international market,” he added.
In the meantime, he indicated that the other units, which will be made available overtime, will cover Negril, Ocho Rios, Port Antonio and the island’s south coast.
Minister Bartlett appealed to stakeholders to continue to play their part in making the sector secure and announced that Sandals International has given the commitment to maintain the unit.
Minister of National Security, Derrick Smith, who was on hand to receive the keys to the vehicle said that the mobile unit will enhance the work of the police.