Les Green, the assistant commissioner of police who heads the constabulary's Major Investigations Task Force, says a shortage of forensic capacity is among the reasons for the inability of the police to solve and prevent more murders in Jamaica. The police force, Mr. Green also suggests, faces a shortage of equipment and, reading between the lines, high-quality investigators.

Almost anyone would, as we do, sympathise with Mr. Green, a former Scotland Yard investigator, and the rest of the Jamaican constabulary. For theirs is a difficult job in which, we suspect, it might not be difficult to feel overwhelmed.

The Jamaican numbers for homicides in particular, are horrific. More than 500 people have already been murdered, nine per cent higher than at the corresponding point in 2006. If this trend continues, homicides will reach the record level of over 1,600 in 2005 after last year's 20 per cent decline.

But worse, people will continue to kill with impunity, largely for the same reason why they can now kill with impunity: Because theycan get away with it.

Indeed, as Mr. Green reported, the police have been able to close their files on only 40 per cent of the murders committed so far this year. This, of itself, would be bad enough. But it is worse when considered against the backdrop that each year the police are able to clear up not much over 50 per cent of the homicides, which is to say, that a suspect has been identified, and, at a stretch, arrested.

Clearly, there is much to be done if homicides are to be brought to a tolerable level and an environment restored in which the constabulary can conduct law enforcement in a situation that other societies would consider normal. Given where Jamaica has reached, this will be a long-term effort, demanding creative approaches and novel solutions to the provision of some of the resources Mr. Green says are lacking.

For instance, as this newspaper has suggested in the past, the authorities may find it easier than anticipated to get professional skills to Jamaica if they go non-traditional routes, such as targeting retirees. There are organisations that help to source this kind of skill, which could be brought in on a rotating basis until Jamaica can sustain the requirement internally.

Similarly, retired, top-flight investigators, who would support local detectives, can be brought in, until Mr. Green can recruit and train enough members of the constabulary. It is time, we believe, to begin thinking, as they say, outside the box.

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