Cops ready to make Reggae Sumfest safe, says Samuels
Published:Wednesday | July 16, 2025 | 12:12 AMAdrian Frater/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The St James police are now in a full state of readiness to handle the bumper crowd that is expected in Montego Bay this Friday and Saturday for the two main nights of Reggae Sumfest 2025 at the Catherine Hall Entertainment Centre.
Senior Superintendent of Police Eron Samuels, the police commander, said they have gone through their planning, brought in additional resources, and have settled on a traffic-management plan, which should result in free-flowing traffic.
“We just came out of a meeting this morning, which we believe has put us in a state of readiness to provide for a safe staging on the festival,” said Samuels. “We are pulling in resources from right across Area One (Trelawny, Hanover, Westmoreland, and St James) to ensure another successful staging of this festival.”
As it relates to traffic management – an annual sticking point – Samuels said a comprehensive plan is in place and it just needs the cooperation of all motorists to work.
“We are asking motorists to park their vehicles only in the designated parking areas and not on the roadway, which sometimes cause the traffic to be backed up and also theft of vehicles,” he said.
Stakeholders report that all hotel rooms in St James, Trelawny, and Hanover are fully booked out for Friday and Saturday night, hence some of the overseas Reggae Sumfest patrons having to seek accommodation as far away as St Ann,
“We have done our usual checks and preparation activities, along with the Sumfest security team, so we expect it to be a successful staging,” said Samuels.
Unlike former years, when the police would ask the promoters not to book certain artistes because of suspected links to the criminal underworld, this time around no such artistes are on the police’s radar.
“We don’t ban artistes. We look at the security concerns surrounding artistes and determine whether they are suitable to perform in St James or not based on the intelligence we have surrounding artistes and their entourage,” said Samuels. “For this year, there is no artiste that we think we will have a problem with based on the significant investment the promoters have made to ensure that it will be a safe event.”