MANCHESTER, Jamaica — Newly minted head of the Manchester police, Odean Dennis, is imploring citizens to be vigilant of strangers in their communities as he pointed to the prevalence of lottery scammers in once peaceful areas.

“One of the key things I am seeing as being [prevalent] in the parish is the number of scammers, it is almost as if they have found Manchester as a safe space and they have come into the place and infest it for want of a better term, it is something that I see that we are going to have to do significant work around,” he said on Thursday during a meeting of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce at Golf View Hotel in Mandeville.

He told the business group that citizens have become too welcoming to strangers.