Beating back crime

The People’s National Party (PNP) believes it has a balanced approach and effective overarching plans to tackle the country’s crime problem if it is elected to form the next Government.

Speaking with journalists at a Gleaner Editor’s Forum on Thursday, Senator Peter Bunting said that a PNP administration would build on the legislative successes it racked up in its last term when he served as national security minister, to chart a safer path forward.

Acknowledging that it is hard for him to speak to specific legislation now, Bunting noted that, between 2012 and 2016, the Portia Simpson Miller administration passed some of the most far-reaching laws to tackle crime.

He noted the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Evidence Act as a response to a request from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), the intelligence briefings that he received as minister, and discussions with bilateral partners.

He said that, since its passing in late 2015, it has helped to secure many convictions, including for a number of rapists.

“If you look at that particular offence, it has dropped most dramatically, and part of the reason it has dropped most dramatically is that the clear-up rate is very high. Last time I looked at it, it was something like 80 per cent,” Bunting said, noting that the legislation had been on the table for probably a decade before he became minister.

Bunting also pointed to the establishment of the Lottery Scamming Task Force, noting that the bill to bring it to life was crafted in six months.

“We came from policy brief to passing legislation, which helped in many ways. We were able to get help from the US and foreign partners in terms of extraditions of some of the masterminds of what was going on,” Bunting told The Gleaner.

Scamming wealth funding gangs

He further noted that a significant portion of the ill-gotten wealth from scamming was being used to finance violent criminal gangs in Jamaica.

The Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) Act, which became law in 2014, was also a response to what the then police commissioner said was the island’s biggest crime problem.

“This was pioneering legislation in Jamaica. This introduced a whole series of conspiracy-type offences like what the anti-racketeering legislation in the US was based on,” Bunting said.

The former Manchester Central member of parliament said that Jamaicans should re-examine what the PNP was able to accomplish, notwithstanding the legislative load for the economic programme the Simpson Miller administration was pursuing at the time.

“[There were several] important pieces of legislation that have had positive impact,” Bunting said.

Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding, for his part, said one idea that the PNP has been proposing is to facilitate a more targeted approach to put the State in a position to effectively fight crime.

“We have put forward fairly developed theories of ideas around a process ... instead of relying on net fishing, where you’re basically scraping up a whole bunch of people who have nothing to do with anything, in order to try and reduce crime. Then you have to release them, having abused their rights,” he said.

Golding also said the PNP will target persons they have credible intelligence on but have not yet sufficiently developed a case that can warrant a charge.

“We have proposed an idea around that, which we will continue to develop and pass into law so we can really try to get to the source of the problem that we have, in terms of persons who are very influential in committing violence in the society,” Golding said.

“It’s not just about legislation,” he admitted, however. “It’s about what you do in communities and the broader society to reorient persons who would otherwise fall into a life of crime and move them away from that towards productive citizenship.”

The opposition leader rapped the Andrew Holness administration for defunding the Peace Management Initiative.

“It has been tremendously successful where it has been supported and been allowed to work … .

The idea of using agents in the community who are respected and who understand the dynamics of the community to be proactive and avoid the escalation of violence, which often results from a single act of disrespect to someone being in a fight or someone being killed, [was excellent],” Golding said.

He referenced the current Project STAR community intervention initiative being led by the private sector, noting that it was similar to the PNP’s Unite for Change flagship programme geared towards a re-engagement of the broader society around giving the youth the best chance in life.

“Right now, the private sector had to fill the void because the Government doesn’t have any policy around that. This aspect of it is also critical in terms of not only trying to not only deal with the criminal elements under the legislation and policy around law enforcement, but also social interventions which are vital to reduce crime in the country,” he said.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com