The lead story in Saturday's STAR again signalled the need for urgent attention to be paid to crime in Clarendon.

The article was about the most recent incident which involved the shooting of seven persons at a wake. Two of the victims died.

According to the article, gunmen opened fire on residents who were at the wake as they attempted to kill a witness to the murder of five people in December 2007, in the nearby community of Water Lane.

Further in the article, the mayor of May Pen, Milton Brown, pleaded for help from the authorities to tackle crime as it could derail development in the parish.

Several articles about the cause of crime in Clarendon show that the problem can be attributed to the increased number of unregulated settlements in the parish which have become a haven for criminals.

These communities are usually difficult to police and hardly any attempt is made to curb growth in these areas. Therefore it is clear that when the mayor is calling for help from the authorities, his council and those agencies that regulate housing and development also have a key role to play.

Obviously these informal settlements should not be allowed to proliferate and those that exist already ought to be regularised quickly. Clarendon definitely needs a comprehensive plan to address crime in the parish.

All stakeholders, from the police to citizens, need to get involved and join together to rid their parish of crime and return it to the once safe place it use to be.