We are going to lock them up - McGregor

Western Bureau:

Unhappy with the open defiance being shown by sex workers, who have ignored the police's instruction not to return to the streets of Montego Bay with their sex-peddling ways, Senior Superintendent of Police Steve McGregor, the commanding officer for St James, is threatening to lock them up.

In fact, the popular lawman said he intends to put undercover policemen on the streets to aid in apprehending the defiant sex workers, who are known to operate in locations along the Hip Strip (Gloucester Avenue), Harbour Street, Church Street, Market Street, and the Charles Gordon Market.

UNDERCOVER COPS

"We are going to have police acting as prospective buyers and we are going to lock them up," McGregor told The Gleaner on Wednesday.

"We are going to do covert action because just like with the vendors (persons operating on the streets of Montego Bay illegally), they are not going to just stop. It is the continual effort that will do it."

In a major operation, which was carried out in downtown Montego Bay last Thursday night by the St James police in conjunction with personnel from the Mobile Reserve and a unit probing human trafficking, 76 alleged prostitutes - 43 females and 33 males - were detained, warned, and subsequently released.

However, within hours of their release, the sex workers were back on the streets in their numbers, some claiming that it was their only source of income and that they had family obligations and other expenses to meet.

"Work hard fi get and me have me children dem fi tek care of, and believe me, gentleman, me nah go tief," one of the sex workers told The Gleaner last Friday night.