A poll led by Don Anderson, highlighted concerns about crime, violence, and corruption in the country as contributing factors to citizens' safety perceptions. The survey also indicated scepticism about the Jamaica Constabulary Force's crime data accuracy, with security expert Robert Finzi-Smith emphasising the islandwide migration of criminals and an increase in multiple shootings influencing people's sense of safety.

Jamaicans living in fear 

Poll finds majority of respondents feel less safe today than a decade ago

Jamaica Gleaner/3 Jan 2024/Sashana Small

DESPITE A decline in murders in 2023 over the previous year, more than half of Jamaicans say they feel less safe now in their homes than they did a decade ago.

The findings were revealed in a survey conducted between November 24 and December 7 last year by the Don Anderson-led Market Research Services Limited (MRSL).

The poll was designed and conducted by MRSL with financial support from what the company describes as a group of senior corporate executives of a publicly listed entity.

Only persons aged 18 years and older and registered to vote were included in the sample. The margin of error was plus or minus three per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level.

Asked if they felt safer in their household now, than 10 years ago, 57 per cent of the 1,015 Jamaicans surveyed said they feel less safe.

Another 243 or 24 per cent of people surveyed said there is no difference in how safe they feel in their household now, compared to 10 years ago, while 19 per cent of respondents said they felt safer in their household now, in contrast to 10 years ago.

Anderson asserted that the findings of the survey were reflective of the concerns around safety citizens have, noting that “it has to do with the level of crime and violence and the level of corruption in this country”.

Preliminary figures released by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) showed that 1,393 people were murdered in Jamaica last year, a decline of 7.8 per cent year when compared to 2022.

Although the reported figure is lower than the two previous years, it is the fourth-highest murder tally recorded in the last decade.

But, even though Anderson believes it is a positive signal that the murder count has decreased over the last two years, according to him, the reported numbers do not have much impact on how safe people feel.

“It’s all a relative situation because if your crime rate is ... and it moves down by 10 percentage points, it doesn’t mean that it’s not high, it means it’s just less high. And therefore I don’t believe that a statistic that says crime is down is going to be comforting because crime is already too high,” he said.

SCEPTICISM OVER JCF CRIME DATA

Meanwhile, security and intelligence expert Robert Finzi-Smith has expressed scepticism of the figures released by the JCF, stating that they do not mirror Jamaica’s current crime situation.

“Do you think that the numbers that you’ve quoted coincide with the reality you are living?” he asked. It all depends on who is giving you the figures. I once asked an accountant how much is one and one, he asked me how much I want it to be,” he said.

Declaring that he agrees with the findings from the survey, Finzi-Smith pointed to the islandwide migration of criminals, and increase in multiple shootings as factors influencing how unsafe people feel.

“There was a time when I could tell you as a security consultant, to feel safe, don’t go to certain places after certain hours. Now there is a situation where you have anywhere anytime, any hour of the day the worst things can happen… it has just spread out,” he said. “You can go siddung and go play domino in the middle of the day and outside a shop and become a casualty.”

But, while stating that it is “understandable that people don’t feel safer”, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, Metry Seaga, lauded the declining murder figures, and emphasised the importance of focusing on this data.

“I think what we have to do is focus on the positive, and note that murder is down by 7.8 per cent this year over last year which is a move in the right direction,” he told The Gleaner. “People talk and they can talk us into feeling unsafe, so what we have to do is make sure and look at the numbers,” he added.

However, Phillip Ramson, president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, while noting the strides made by the Government in addressing crime, stated that a lot more needs to be done. He asserted that attacking the issue should be a focal point for the Government this year.

According to Ramson, states of emergency are not an effective long-term strategy and efforts should be made to implement recommendations from the Crime Monitoring Oversight Committee as well as to revive community-based social programmes.

“I think social programmes are the long-term solution because you have to find something for the younger generation. When they go out to school and they’re in an environment that encourages personal growth and then they go back into an environment that is not conducive to that, there has to be something that is an area for them to be able to learn new trades, new skills, and do their studies, and not going back into these communities that are just fostering crime,” he said.

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