Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Jason Russell is urging the Government to fully finance and expand the JamaicaEye surveillance programme, arguing that the burden of strengthening the island’s CCTV network should no longer rest heavily on private citizens and businesses.

“The Jamaican Government probably needs to spend the money to actually do JamaicaEye,” Russell said while addressing Wednesday night’s annual general meeting of the MBCCI, where he was elected to a second term as president.

Questioning whether the programme’s public-private partnership model is sustainable in Jamaica, Russell argued that while the concept of businesses and homeowners sharing camera feeds with the authorities may work in other countries, Jamaica requires a more aggressive state-led surveillance strategy to effectively tackle crime.