KINGSTON, Jamaica, The use of states of public emergency (SOEs) has proven to be the quickest and most effective way of rapidly reducing violent crimes, says Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson.
“During the first period of the SOEs declared in November, murders were reduced by as high as 64 percent and increased by as much as 171 percent during the seven days when the emergency powers were removed,” he disclosed.
The Commissioner further stated that when the powers were reinstituted, the first seven-day period recorded declines as high as 55 percent in the divisions where the SOEs were declared and continued to trend downwards.
Major General Anderson spoke at a press conference on December 28 at the Office of the Prime Minister in St. Andrew, where Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared a state of public emergency.
“As we close this year and move into the new year, we must sustain the downward trend, using all the tools that we know are effective in curbing the violence we continue to see,” he said.
Major General Anderson noted that the suite of legislative, operational, and intelligence responses has been critical to reducing numbers.
He informed that the critical legislative tools were the provision of emergency powers to the security forces for two 14-day periods during November and December and the new Firearms Act, which came into effect at the beginning of November.
“Since the beginning of this year, the country has recorded a daily average of four murders. This peaked in September when the daily average reached nearly five murders. September and October recorded increases as high as eight percent compared to 2021. Over the past two months, we have managed to reduce the daily murder average to 2.5 and have reduced the gap between last year and this year from eight percent in early October to 1.5 percent currently,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner pointed out that adding the St. Andrew North police division will bring all divisions in the Corporate Area under an SOE. He said this would allow for greater coordination of assets as the violence producers are targeted, particularly in volatile spaces and at the divisional borders.
“Intelligence indicates the movement of gangsters and illegal guns through and in the St. Andrew North Police Division as well as attempts by migrant criminals to align and establish themselves in some hotspots in the division. This cannot be left unaddressed if we continue to reap the successes that we have seen, particularly across Kingston and St. Andrew,” he said.
He urged the public to obey the rules and laws associated with public order, loud noise, and traversing the roadways.
“They are there for your safety, and whereas we are out in our numbers for this period, it is impossible to be everywhere. We ask you to take responsibility for your safety on the roads and at these events. At the same time, we maintain the operational activities associated with targeting violence producers and criminal gangs and violence reduction in hotspots,” he said.
The Commissioner thanked the law-enforcement partners for their unwavering commitment to Jamaica, steadfastness, and persistence under challenging circumstances.
Commissioner Anderson disclosed that up to December 28, 1,481 persons had been murdered.
He said this represents an increase of 1.23 percent compared to last year’s corresponding period.
“We were coming down from 8.9 percent three months ago, so we have managed to do quite a bit. This month, we are tracking probably around 50 percent of what it was last year… so we are probably 50 percent of the 127 this year, that’s about 50 plus lives just for December,” he informed.
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