WESTERN BUREAU:
BETWEEN JANUARY 1 and June 11 major crimes in St. James increased by 123 offences over the same time last year.
Deputy Crime Chief for St. James, Detective Inspector Clive Brown, told a public forum on Wednesday that 364 major crimes were committed in that time, against 241 for that period last year. Major crimes include murders, shootings, robberies, burglaries, larcenies and all sexual offences.
Robbery, which accounted for 138 of the cases, topped the list. Thirty-one of those cases have been cleared up, Detective Inspector Brown told his audience at the St. John's Methodist Church Hall in Montego Bay.
Breaking and entering accounted for 103. Thirty-two of which have been cleared up. For the other major crimes murder stands at 23; shootings, 47; rape, 21; and carnal abuse seven.
Inspector Brown noted, however, that there has been a 25 per cent reduction in sexual offences.
He added that the police was taking a more structured and aggressive approach to mediation with a view to reducing domestic murders.
As part of its recently unvei-led Corporate Strategy Plan the police "will be "maintaining our raids, spot checks, road blocks and physical search of persons. We will be increasing a more purposeful visibility of police personnel in commercial and crime prone areas, as well as increase in community patrol including the use of bicycles.
"The number of patrols and vehicles will be increased, especially on weekends, as the tendency exist that more offences are likely to be committed during this period," said Mr. Brown..
Commanding Officer in charge of St. James, Superinten-dent Leon Rose also noted that the St. James Division, since January, has embarked on a zero tolerance initiative enforcement. This has resulted in the issuing of 9,490 traffic tickets to violators. He noted too that more than 30 schools throughout the parish had benefited from educational talk on road safety.
