AS THE Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) seeks to put last year, with 1,574 murders, behind it, Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields said yesterday that there would be more focus on intelligence gathering and transforming the JCF from a force into a customer-service-oriented organisation.

"We are committed to improving intelligence-led policing; we are committed to improving the standard of our investigations; we are committed to bringing in forensic and scene-of-crime techniques that will improve our chances of ensuring that the right people are convicted of crime; (and), we are dealing with ways in which we deal with witnesses," DCP Shields told The Sunday Gleaner. He said the efforts of the police must be buttressed by the work of social interventions and community development.

DCP Shields was speaking against the background of the JCF's release of the crime figures for 2007. The metropolitan areas of Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Catherine led the way in murders, with 1,010 lives being snuffed out. The rural areas contributed just over half of this figure, with 564 murders.

Total murders of 1,574 last year represents a 17 per cent increase when compared with 2006, which recorded 1,340 murders. The figure for 2007, however, was lower than the infamous record set in 2005, when 1,674 persons had their lives forcefully taken.