Limited resources hindering more SOPEs, ZOSOs - security heads

Several more communities in Jamaica could have been declared zones of special operations (ZOSO) and others corralled under states of public emergency (SOPEs) if the security forces had more resources, including boots on the ground, the Internal and External Affairs Committee of Parliament was told yesterday.

Heads of the island's public security apparatus, Major General Rocky Meade, chief of defence staff (CDS), and Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson, as well as personnel from the Ministry of National Security, took questions from the committee, and provided updates on the security situation in the country. They also addressed the new SOPE declared by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in his capacity as minister of defence, on Sunday.

The declaration was given on the advice of both the CDS and the police commissioner.

It was a second round of questions from committee member Horace Dalley that elicited the response from the army chief that more of Jamaica would be under enhanced security operations if the entities had the resources.

"When you look at the country, if we had enough resources, we could be doing several more communities," said Meade.

Dalley also asked both men if there was any truth that "a prison break" or an attempted bust from the Horizon Remand Centre last weekend influenced their decision in advising the prime minister to declare the latest SOPE, which covers the St Andrew South, Kingston Western and Kingston Central police divisions.

Meade made it clear that the current crime situation required that a number of factors be taken into consideration, and given the seriousness of SOPEs, in particular, it could not be declared as a knee-jerk reaction.

OTHER AREAS TARGETED

Continuing, he said, "There are several areas that, based on our assessment, could use our intervention, and we use some other factors which you would prefer us to not discuss, that details the sequencing. And it's not that something happened the day, or the week before in a particular event. We already have a sense of the communities that need intervention."

For his part, the police commissioner said the areas under the enhanced security measures were found to have significant linkages to communities currently under security operations.

"There are significant issues of linkages that were put into the overall mix, why we did what we did," he said.

Earlier in his comments, Anderson was more direct about the connections. He said the communities in the Corporate Area now under a security crackdown, have, for a long time, had significant numbers of shootings and killings, especially if the regions are taken individually.

"From an intelligence perspective, there are a number of linkages between a number of these areas and other areas that are experiencing challenges. There are linkages with St Catherine, St James, in the east (Kingston), Clarendon. There are all sorts of linkages. So, in prosecuting our operations and making these decisions, there is a lot of information beyond just a murder rate or shootings, but the murders and shootings are significant in those areas," said Anderson.

He said there are few parishes where a state of emergency would not be declared.

Currently, ZOSOs are operational in two areas, and SOPEs in three.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com