Murders Trending Down in Westmoreland

Head of the Westmoreland Police Division, Senior Superintendent Wayne Joseph, says murders in the parish are trending down, since the implementation of Operation Relentless II in September.

Addressing the monthly meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation in Savanna-la-Mar on November 10, Superintendent Joseph said the initiative began in the capital and “we will be going, eventually, right across the parish”.

“Our mission really is to reduce murders and restore public confidence,” the Superintendent said.

“[Up to last month], we had 121 [murders]. Today, one month later, we only had six more murders. Usually, we would have an average of about three to four murders per week. This [reduction] is a result of Operation Relentless. We selected some areas within the parish that we need to target, some main violence producers that we also need to target, and we have been working relentlessly at that and we’re seeing where it is bearing fruit,” he informed.

Launched on September 23, Operation Relentless II is jointly being carried out by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Jamaica Defense Force (JDF) and aims to target criminal gangs and gangsters involved in violent crimes or other aspects of the illicit gun trade.

This is being implemented in police divisions across the island with elevated levels of violent crimes.

Superintendent Joseph also credits the community engagement programme implemented by the Westmoreland Police Division for the reduction in murders.

“My staff and I go into the communities and I am sure you will see some of my staff even in schools, the churches, [doing] community walkthroughs, business walkthroughs, and at widely publicised stakeholder meetings,” he said.

“This is really to bring the police and the public much closer, because over the years we have seen where there has been some distance being created between the police and the public, and if we are going to get a hold on the crime situation in the parish, it cannot be the police alone,” Superintendent Joseph added.

He pointed out that the public engagement programme, where the people can feel more comfortable to engage with the police, has been bearing fruit.