Murders Down in St. James

Commanding Officer of the St. James Police Division, Superintendent Eron Samuels, says there has been a significant reduction in homicides and shootings in the parish during April.

Addressing the monthly meeting of the St. James Municipal Corporation, Superintendent Samuels pointed out that six murders were recorded in the parish during the month, the lowest monthly homicide rate recorded in the parish during the last eight years.

He credited the decline in violent crimes to the diligent efforts of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).

“Over the last month, the efforts of the police and the military have seen a reduction in murders and shootings. In fact, for the month of April we saw the region recording the lowest murder figure for a month since 2016 with six murders, a little too much just the same, but the efforts of the Division must be noted,” he added.

Superintendent Samuels said that despite the overall decrease in crime, some communities continue to be of grave concern, particularly Salt Spring and Flanker.

He noted that the police continue to work diligently to bring some stability within these areas.

“We are really pushing as hard as we can to ensure that we bring some stability to the locations, and we are always calling on the stakeholders and members of the community to work with us as we try our best to get things under control,” Superintendent Samuels said.

He underscored that as part of ensuring this progress is maintained, the JCF is actively working on increasing partnerships within the areas.

“What we are doing right now is to ramp up the partnerships that we have with the communities in order to ensure that we try our best to maintain our reductions going forward,” he said.

For his part, Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Richard Vernon, expressed his satisfaction with the reduction in bloodshed, adding that he hopes “it will be the framework and the trajectory that we are working with for the rest of the year”.

He emphasised the importance of recognising achievements in combatting crime, just as criticism is raised when challenges arise.

“We must underscore such achievements because when it is antinoble we come out and make a lot of noise; we criticise the work of the police, the Government; we find everybody to criticise. When we are experiencing gains, we must take some time out to recognise it as well,” the Mayor said.