Gov’t reimposes SOEs in several parishes

The Government has reimposed states of public emergency (SOEs) in several parishes.

The 14-day security measures are now in effect in St Ann, Clarendon, St Catherine, St James, Westmoreland, Hanover, Kingston and St Andrew.

In making the announcement a short while ago, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that the SOEs are aimed at continuing to tame crime in those areas.

“While we have had reasonable success in controlling the number of murders leading up to and during the Christmas season, the threat levels for ongoing gang conflicts, contract killings, organised robberies of businesses, hijacking of goods in transit and various confidence scams that ultimately lead to the loss of life, spreading of fear and depriving entire communities of their freedoms pursuing their own business and happiness… remains elevated and expensive in scale,” said Holness.

He noted that last year December 127 murders were committed.

Taking an annualised view, the Prime Minister said that this would mean a murder rate of 56 per 100,000, which he charged is way too high.

He said after studying the trends and the data, the government acted to save lives and to preserve the freedoms of Jamaicans.

Holness maintained the government's defence of the use of SOEs, arguing that it is an important crime-fighting tool to save lives.  

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