published: Friday | November 14, 2003
By Adrian Frater, Jamaica Gleaner News Editor


THE RESPONSIBILITY for securing the island's resorts has now been passed officially from the Resort Patrol Unit to the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

In a ceremony in Montego Bay, which formalised the switch, Dr. Wykeham McNeill, State Minister of Tourism, said the move, which sees Montego Bay getting 40 specially trained personnel, and Negril and Ocho Rios getting 30 each, is designed to ensure the safety of visitors to the island.

"Tourism is dependent on a positive social environment to flourish," said Dr. McNeill. "We therefore need to re-double our effort to ensure that we create the necessary environment to ensure that our visitors have a positive vacation experience."

The new police team is under the command of Deputy Superintendent of Police Karina Powell-Hood, who was recently appointed the island's Police Tourism liaison officer.

The team is specially trained in immigration laws and groomed to handle hospitality issues.

Head of the Area One Police, Assistant Commissioner Linton Latty, said he expected the team to perform well during the upcoming winter tourist season, given their level of training.

In welcoming the new police unit, Winston Dear, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that while harassment was the greatest problem plaguing tourism, a special effort should be made to "differentiate between genuine friendship and harassment."

IMPORTANT INDUSTRY

"Tourism is our most important industry and we must protect it," said Mr. Dear, who encouraged the law enforcers to resist the temptation of those who might seek to corrupt them.

Dr. McNeill in the meantime said the role of the Resort Patrol is under review, with the possibility that the unit might be re-assigned to another area.

In a bid to ensure that the police properly meet its new mandate, Superintendent Newton Amos, the commanding officer for the St. James police, said he was calling on hoteliers to encourage visitors to co-operate with the police's investigation when there is a problem.

"We want their co-operation because we want the perpetrators of crime against visitors to feel the full weight of the law," said Superintendent Amos.

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Be Good

I have to agree with Mr. Dear, because not every person that tries to befriend a tourist is indeed a gigolo or a harasser.

I think many locals try to befriend our island's visitors so as to create a channel so that they could travel abroad and make better for themselves.

but still many times they go overboard. I think a person should see when they are no longer need.

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GODFREY DYER, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), has expressed satisfaction with the performance of the specially-trained police unit which took over the security of the nation's major resort towns less than two months ago. He went on to say that so far Jamaica has had an incident-free arrival of a record 300,000 tourists to Jamaica's ports in December, Mr. Dyer said he was satisfied with the high-visibility policing in areas such as the Montego Bay 'Hip Strip', which is the centre of tourism-related activities in the western city.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/glean...ead/lead4.html

I think this is positive news for our ailing tourism industry. I thisnk it can onlt get better after this.

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Be Good