Negril Chamber to give cops vehicles
THE Negril Chamber of Commerce will this month donate two cars and a jeep to help the Westmoreland police fight crime.
“The Negril police station, right now, needs at least two cars and a jeep to properly and effectively police the Negril resort area, especially during the (ongoing) winter tourist season. and the Chamber will be donating this to them,” said Chamber president, Cliff Reynolds.
The donation was partially spurred by last year’s robbery/murder at a Negril property in which cops were blamed for their handling of the situation that left the hotel gardener dead and several guests robbed.
The Chamber’s donation will be made directly to Superintendent Stanley Fletcher, who is in charge of Westmoreland. According to Fletcher, while he and his men are making progress in their fight against crime, the vehicles would be a big help.
More than 50 per cent – 15 of the 26 – of the murders committed in the parish last year, he said, had been solved.
“The vehicle gift from the Chamber of Commerce will be very useful once deployed whereever the police sees the need,” Fletcher said.
Citing the lawmen’s resource constraints and the importance of their being mobile, Reynolds explained the Chamber’s motivation for the gift.
“We thought it prudent to rise to the occasion. This is our community, it is part of Jamaica and a growing tourist resort and an expanding residential community,” he said. “The Chamber is convinced that the step we have taken is part of good corporate citizenship. We prefer to be part of the crime solution rather than be numbered among the problems they (police) face in carrying out their duties.”
Meanwhile, Reynolds has urged the government to critically assess and provide the tools the police need. He intimated that vehicles, for example, were critical. He cited the unusual vehicular and commuter traffic, heightened commercial activity and business transactions in the resort town of Negril since the winter tourist season began on December 15.
Cops, he said, must be able to move freely within the town and its environs.
