Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
THREE MAYORS are calling on government to stop ignoring what they deem the incalculable contribution local authorities can make to the national fight against crime.
"Central government announces all these grand plans to fight crime and in no instance, none of them was discussed with the local authorities, before or after they were launched," Milton Brown, mayor of May Pen, told The Gleaner. "They loop around us and this is ineffective. It is our view that more communication be effected with local authorities to ensure that there is more congruence."
George Lee, mayor of Portmore, implored the government to take a selfless approach to ridding the nation of the plague of crime and violence.
MORE AUTONOMY
"I think that central government still wants to hold everything close to its chest. What is needed is for central government to see that much can be accomplished if they give us more autonomy and funding," he said.
Mayor Lee also suggested that the municipal councils could aid in restoring the breach of trust between the people and the police.
The mayors insisted that they could make priceless contributions in the fight against crime, especially in the area of gathering intelligence among the grass roots people.
"Central government should start working with the parish councils to tame this crime monster," added Raymoth Notice, mayor of the embattled Old Capital, Spanish Town.
"The councillors are politically rooted and they know who are involved in the warfare and donmanship," he further stated.
Mayor Notice, who has called for the introduction of a gun amnesty, told The Gleaner that although the councillors are cognisant of dons and their operations, efforts to rid the communities of their influence have been rendered impotent without the backing of central government.
DONMANSHIP
"Donmanship is a new form of governance that the councillors are aware of and most times they have no power over these gun-toting lords," he said.
However, Donovan Nelson, communications adviser in the Ministry of National Security, told The Gleaner that he could not fathom the nature of the complaints coming from the mayors, but he conceded that there is much that could be gained from consistent collaboration with the parish councils.
"I don't understand why they are complaining and there are avenues available to them to contact central government and they can take up the phone and call," he said.
One such avenue, Mr. Nelson said, was the community consultative committees or community councils that are active in certain areas. These bodies, chaired by custodes, were established during the 1990s to get local participation in fighting crime, but many have grown inactive.
