JCF rejects claims of statistical manipulation

WESTERN BUREAU:

The police have flatly rejected a suggestion that the island’s crime figures are being under-reported.

According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) latest crime statistics, up to August 3, there were some 692 murders across the island, a 15.6 per cent year-on-year decline. Similarly, shootings fell from 643 over the corresponding period last year to 629 in 2024. Rape (35 per cent), robberies (16.4 per cent), and break-ins (6.5 per cent) have also fallen this year.

But a respected security expert in western Jamaica is challenging the validity of the murder figures, claiming that persons who are shot and die after a protracted period of hospitalisation are often labelled as undetermined deaths and not murders.

“As media, you people need to keep track of what happens when gunshot victims are hospitalised and later die,” the security expert, who did not want to be identified, urged The Gleaner. “If the statistics are not correct, how can the police justify requests for more resources to fight criminals? For effective planning, the statistics must be painting the right picture.”

However, when The Gleaner contacted Senior Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay, who heads the JCF’s Corporate Communications Unit, she dismissed the allegation.

“That is not true. When a person is shot and later dies, it is upgraded from shooting to murder, even if the person dies six months later,” said Lindsay. “The upgraded information would be added to the month in which the incident occurred. We stand by the statistics that we provide.”

Meanwhile, the police recorded more successes in their clampdown on illegal weapons and gun-related crimes in recent days with the arrest of a man, who allegedly hit a woman with a gun in St James, and the seizure of an illegal firearm in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.

In the problematic Retirement community in St James, 30-year-old shopkeeper Zania ‘Fourteen’ Burke, who reportedly used an illegal firearm to hit a woman several times while threatening to shoot her, was arrested and charged with possession of a prohibited weapon, possession of firearm with intent to injure, assault at common law, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault.

According to reports, on the day of the incident, a woman with whom Burke had an ongoing dispute was standing along the roadway when Burke allegedly attacked her, striking her several times with the firearm.

The woman reportedly ran and later made a report to the police.

On August 3, the accused reportedly surrendered to the police in the company of his attorney.

While he denied the accusation, he was arrested and charged following additional investigations.

In the incident in Westmoreland, three men were charged with breaches of the Firearms Act after an illegal firearm and several rounds of ammunition were reportedly seized along Meyler’s Avenue in Savanna-la-Mar on July 31.

The men have been identified as 33-year-old Collin ‘Black Boy’ Annakie, of Savanna-la-Mar and Kingston 11 addresses; 26-year-old livestock farmer and promoter Jerome Bradford, of Meyler’s Avenue; and 27-year-old farmer Jurmmy Wilson, also of Meyler’s Avenue.

According to reports, about 9:28 p.m., a team of lawmen observed a group of men behaving suspiciously and conducted a search, during which a Taurus 9mm pistol with a magazine containing nine 9mm rounds was found.

The three were jointly charged with possession of a prohibited weapon and unauthorised possession of ammunition.

editorial@gleanerjm.com