By Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
MANY BUSINESS operators in the Corporate Area are still in the dark about a special hotline set up to report extortion almost six months ago by the Organised Crime Investigative Unit.
The hotline was expected to arrest the mushrooming extortion rackets that eat up a significant portion of the profits of local businesses.
However, the hotline may remain cold for a long while because those business persons who are only now being aware of it are wary about giving information to the police. They say they fear that the information they give to the police may find its way back to the extortionists.
Noel DaCosta, vice-president of the Jamaica Chamber of Com-merce, told The Sunday Gleaner in an interview that checks among CofC members showed very little knowledge of the hotline.
"The first thing is that they (members) haven't heard about it. They say it needs to be publicised more. Overall though, they think it is a good idea but one would have to be assured that the information would be received at a fairly senior level so that people can be confident that the information given would be used in a responsible manner and won't come back to haunt them," he said.
Checks by The Sunday Gleaner confirmed that members of the business community, while applauding the hotline as a good idea, had very little knowledge about it.
"I never even know that they had an extortion hotline, in any case I don't even think it comes this far," said one Orange Street storeowner in downtown Kingston.
TELEPHONE NUMBERS
"I haven't even given this hotline thing a thought but I guess if you can call and not give your name and the name of your business then it would be alright but I don't think anybody wants that kind of trouble now," added the storeowner.
The hotline which the police have been advertising in the print media in the last month, lists several telephone numbers for victims or would-be victims of extortion to call.
Superintendent Norman Gordon, head of the unit, has reported that there was a growing number of queries about the unit, made on the hotline, and that there were a few reports of extortion.
"The response has been favourable, although we have had no arrests," said Superintendent Gordon. "What we have had mostly are people calling to inquire what they can do if such a thing happened. We have had a few cases. All of them have been from the Corporate Area that we have under investigation right now."
In recent weeks, says Superin-tendent Gordon, he has received a number of the reports from business people, about persons soliciting money for Christmas treats but these he said, do not satisfy the requirements of extortion.
DEEP CONCERN
"Some say the people are asking them for money for Christmas treats and so on. Some of them are being investigated but the majority of them don't really support extortion. I can't give you any figures," said the Superintendent.
In October the Consultative Committee which was charged with overseeing the implementation of the recommendations of the National Committee on Crime and Violence expressed deep concern about the growing problem and effects of extortion in Jamaica.
According to a news release from the Committee on October 1, serious concerns were expressed about the "pervasiveness of extortion in both urban and rural Jamaica" which had "become a common feature of doing business in many commercial areas and on construction sites, including roads and bridges".
The committee has since appealed to "the entire political leadership of the country to publicly denounce all acts of extortion, and to encourage their constituents to support the security forces in enforcing the laws of Jamaica".
Among the numbers listed for the extortion hotline are: 922-7052, 967-1389, 967-5627 and 909-0255.
