Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer
Superintendent Dathan Henry (left) of the Clarendon police has the rapt attention of Mayor of May Pen, Milton Brown, during a Gleaner Editors' Forum held at Denbigh Showground yesterday.

Gareth Manning, Staff Reporter

UNREGULATED AND illicit vending in the May Pen town centre is not only placing a strain on the ageing infrastructure of the town, but is also fuelling criminal activities, the Clarendon police told a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the Denbigh Agricultural Showground in the parish yesterday.

At the same time, Mayor of May Pen, Milton Brown, disclosed plans for the registration and licensing of all vendors operating in Clarendon by December.

Superintendent of the Clarendon police, Dathan Henry, said many criminals have been conducting illegal activities under the pretence of vending in the town, complicating an already acute crime situation in the parish. Since the start of the year, there have been 83 murders, 59 shootings and 97 robberies in Clarendon.

"Most vendors over the years have been allowed to set up shop in the bus park. Some of them place containers along the side of the road (in which) criminals hide, as well as use them to camouflage their activities," said Henry. "They use the containers to sell rounds, guns and cocaine," he added

Cocaine seized

Henry disclosed that the police recently conducted a raid of the market in which 250 pellets of cocaine were seized. One man was arrested, charged and later convicted, related to the seizure.

"When you look at the zinc fence, it looks like a straight zinc fence, but there is a door inside of it. I don't know how they designed it that way!" Henry described a discovery made by the police recently.

The May Pen mayor acknowledged the problem and said an exercise was under way to have all vendors registered.

"By December, the vendors who do business in Clarendon are going to be those licensed to do business," Brown said.

He said vendors plying their trade in the market would be licensed first. He disclosed that the parish council was exploring a new design for the market to make it easier to regulate and monitor activities there. Brown said the council was considering transforming the market into an arcade, with shops for vendors instead of stalls.

But the police want more than just licensing and design changes for the market and its surroundings. Henry said cameras were needed in the market to improve its supervision. The cadre of municipal police officers assigned to monitor activities in the town also needs to be increased.

"If we have this, then we can reduce the number of policemen patrolling the market and use them for other crime-fighting functions," said Henry.

gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com.