The St James business community is looking to further support crime-fighting by partnering with the Government on the national closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance programme dubbed ‘JamaicaEye’.

Oral Heaven, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), said the entity recently met with Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson to begin plans to establish CCTV cameras in and around the second city.

“We have identified ways of getting it in St James [and] we are working with the powers that be to get it up and running,” said Heaven.

He was addressing journalists at a press conference at the MBCCI headquarters at Freeport on Thursday, March 2.

Heaven said that any crime-fighting tool and initiative that requires public-private partnership is welcomed and will be supported by the chamber, noting that crime should be the concern of every citizen.

Lieutenant Commander George Overton, former chairman of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) had said that more funding was needed to facilitate camera maintenance under JamaicaEye.

He noted that cameras, particularly on the western side of the island, need attention due to their high salt spray environment.

JamaicaEye, launched in 2018, is designed to network CCTVs owned by the national security ministry as well as accommodate feed from privately owned cameras. Registered private citizens are able to share footage from their cameras in relation to criminal activity and other emergencies.

READ: JamaicaEye’s camera maintenance budget needs to be revisited, says Overton