Citizens Outside St. James SOE Urged to Report Suspicious Persons

Persons residing outside of the boundaries of St. James State of Public Emergency (SOE) are being encouraged to report any suspicious activities or individuals turning up in their communities who may be attempting to flee the parish.

The appeal came from Commissioner of Police, Major General Antony Anderson, during Wednesday’s (November 8) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House in St. Andrew.

During the briefing, Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, announced the declaration of the enhanced security measure for the entire parish of St. James.

“We ask for the public’s support to increase the chances of our collective success,” the Commissioner said.

The public can provide information by calling the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Tip line at 811, Police Emergency at 119 or CRIME STOP at 311.

Major General Anderson, in noting the need for the SOE, said that St. James has one of the highest rates of violent crimes in the country, with organised and highly violent criminal gangs, affiliates and breakaway factions engaged in deadly inter- and intra-gang conflicts.

As of November 6, the St. James Division had recorded the highest number of murders and shootings, at 167 and 100, respectively.

“It is down from where it was but we are nowhere where it should be. When you add access to funds obtained through advance-fee fraud or lottery scamming, the proceeds of the illegal drug trade and extortion, proceeds of which are used to purchase illegal guns and order contract killings, it creates the conditions for what we are seeing. These are the circumstances fueling violent crimes. We have been arresting these criminal terrorists and violent offenders and disrupting and prosecuting criminal gangs and gang members,” the Commissioner said.

He said that data from previous SOEs indicate that the use of the methodology has been very effective in quickly reducing violent crimes.

“It is important to recall that when the emergency powers were first brought into effect, the reduction in killings in St. James was 70 per cent. We still have not and will not return to those days. An SOE, at this time, will allow us to optimise available resources, in particular the support from the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF),” he pointed out.

The Commissioner said that the enhanced security measure will complement the suite of other policing activities and operations that are being intensified ahead of the Yuletide season.

He pledged that the police will not allow criminal terrorists to profit from the fear they create in communities.

“As long as Jamaicans need us to keep them safe in their communities, we will continue to respond. There is an urgency to what we do as a society. It is on this basis that there is no place for reticence in using every tool at our collective disposal to stanch the bloodletting,” he said.

The announcement of the State of Public Emergency comes in the aftermath of the killing of three persons in a taxi in Salt Spring, St. James, on Monday (November 6).

They are seven-year-old Justin Perry and nine-year-old Nahcolvia Smith, both students, and 26-year-old Tevin Hayle.

The incident followed a double murder in the Salt Spring community only a few days before “in front of a school that was the epicentre of the peace-building arrangements,” the Commissioner said.

The Police Commissioner, who visited with the children’s parents on Tuesday (November 7), said that they were inconsolable, questioning what they could have done differently to have prevented the killing of their children.

“There is a wider context to these killings – someone knew before that this person was going out to shoot; someone supplied the firearm and ammunition; someone perhaps paid for it to be done and someone is protecting the person now. Everyone in that group owns a part of the death of those kids and a part of the misery and pain in the lives of those mothers and those communities,” he said.