Community Focus: 'Springfield is the safest community in St James'

While crime remains a concern for most communities in St James, residents of Springfield in south St James are contending that except for the occasional disagreement and banter among friends, Springfield can easily be crime-free.

"Mi naw show off an boast, but we can lef we front door open and go a Montego Bay and come back and nobody nuh trouble your tings," said 63-year-old shopkeeper Luretta Thomas. "A must you own people violate, but nobody not interfering with yuh tings."

"A nuff time mi fall asleep and forget to shut up mi house, and it is like this all my life," Thomas said.

Residents believe that Springfield is easily the safest place this side of Jamaica.

For Tubal 'Maas Tubal' Hines, criminality, and anyone involved in such activity, is not tolerated in his domain, and he said that that is the general attitude of most of the residents.

"Young people will be young people, and occasionally, they have their disagreement, but not long after that, they are friends again. Apart from that, Springfield nice."

Maas Tubal's son Paul is a farmer and earns his income by supplying higglers who ply their wares in the Charles Gordon Market.

But unlike many farmers across the region, praedial larceny is not a concern for him and other cultivators.

"As you might notice, not a lot of persons in the community in the day because most are hard-working people. When they come in, they might be out and about a while, then they have to prepare for the next day. No time for idling," he said. "When a stranger show up, we all know that it is a stranger in no time because we live good with one another."

Efforts to get the police's crime statistics for Springfield to support their claim were unsuccessful.