Cops pledge to quell western crime wave by June
Published:Wednesday | April 6, 2022 | 12:12 AM
A surge in violent crime in western Jamaica has forced the police to “pivot” and launch a series of operations, Jamaica’s police commissioner has said.
That response was initiated over the last week to rein in murders in Area One – covering parishes in that region – which represents 35 per cent of homicides nationally.
Citing the trend as “our major concern”, Major General Antony Anderson said the constabulary expects to quell the upsurge in the April-June quarter.
“We are targeting some of the people we know are carrying out the violence, but also occupying the spaces and also the routes that they normally use, using not only our traditional techniques but we have been using some technology in that space, and that is why I am reasonably confident that over this quarter, we should see a change in what is happening in the west,” Anderson said during a Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) press conference Tuesday afternoon.
Since schools reopened for face-to-face classes after the midterm break, there have been a number of violent incidents among students, some of which the commissioner said have their genesis in gang conflicts that have spilled out on the streets.
To address the challenge, particularly in Area One, the JCF has trained and deployed an additional 55 school resource officers.
“We don’t intend to put police officers in every school, and we shouldn’t have to, but it is important to train more of our members to support and help school administrators deal with the challenges of violence that they face,” he said.
Anderson added that the force will also seek to improve the quality and volume of mentorship to youth in communities across the country.
Jamaica has reported an 8.5 per cent reduction in major crimes for the first quarter of the year.
As of March 31, murders were down by three per cent, while shootings declined by 16 per cent.
Seventy-one per cent of homicides have been attributed to gang violence and 16 per cent to interpersonal disputes.