Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

Spanish Town, St. Catherine: Minister of National Security Dr. Peter Phillips met with the Clarendon business community on Thursday and announced plans to erect closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras throughout May Pen and surrounding areas in an effort to clamp down on criminal activities.

According to Dr. Phillips, this initiative will take a systematic approach as persons will not only sit and watch the footage, but it will be so structured, that evidence can be taken from what happens and presented in a court of law.

"We have learnt from a pilot project that it needs to be a system that can tap into private network for all to benefit effectively and, as such, we are using a renowned expert for this initiative," Dr. Phillips said.

He told the gathering that crime fighting is everybody's business and that, while the police in May Pen are reaping some success against the criminals, the time has come for a revamping of their initiative, as technology has taken criminality to a new level.

Sensitisation effort

His ideas were welcomed by the business people and he assured them that another planned effort was the establishment of a marine and coastguard post by early June, in Clarendon, to deal with guns coming in on the high seas.

He said the CCTV experts will arrive in the island on June 4 to start the training and sensitisation of police personnel and that, by September, things should be in high gear.

While not putting forward a figure, he told the business persons that the venture would be a costly exercise and reassured them that his ministry was doing all in its power to fight crime, as it had revamped its radio commu-nication at a cost of more than US$20 million (J$1.36 billion).

He said this was 99 per cent complete and that the response capabilities of the police will also be improved with the coming of several four-wheel-drive motor vehicles to assist in dealing with the criminal activities in the area.

However, he commended the police for their efforts despite the limited resources with which they have to work.