Lovelette Brooks, News Editor

Dr Henley Morgan (centre), guest speaker at the launch of 'Alert', the Jamaica Defence Force's magazine, chats with Major General Stewart Saunders (right), chief of defence staff, and Lieutenant Colonel Paul Dunn at Up Park Camp, St Andrew, last Tuesday.- Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

DR HENLEY MORGAN, management consultant and 'social entrepreneur', has charged members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) to play a more active role in fighting crime, as Jamaica is at war with itself.

He held nothing back as he addressed a resplendent gathering of army officers in the JDF's conference room at Up Park Camp, St Andrew last Tuesday.

Morgan, who was guest speaker at the launch of the JDF's 23rd edition of its magazine Alert, said that "crime management in Jamaica cannot be business as usual, it must be business unusual".

While challenging the soldiers, Morgan, who sat on the National Task Force on Crime and Violence in 2002 and the Special Task Force on Crime in 2006, also took a swipe at the Government's present approach in the fight against crime.

Crime czar

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inappropriate for the stormy present," he said pointedly.

"Recently, I published 10 actions to help solve crime. One of these was that the Jamaican government appoint a crime czar similar to the United States of America. After the 9/11 terrorist attack, under the Homeland Security Act, the US appointed Michael Chertoff as a kind of czar to arrest terrorism, and this worked. Why can't we have a similar operation in Jamaica?" Morgan argued.

He further explained that the job of a crime czar in Jamaica would be to coordinate a network of crimebusters, which would include the police, military, as well as civilians.

This, he said, would would require special legislation, but a "concerted attack on crime is what we need".

Such a move, Morgan believes, would bring more of the JDF divisions directly into crime fighting. For example, the coast guard, which, he said, is already involved, would take on a more co-ordinated approach, reporting to the crime czar.

record-breaking year

Using the opportunity to highlight the country's run-away murder rate, Morgan, who heads the Trench Town-based Praise City International Church, told the JDF that Jamaica was heading towards another record-breaking year for homicides.

Noting that more than 930 persons had been murdered since the start of the year, including nine policemen and at least one soldier, Morgan said: "At this rate, Jamaica seems set to surpass its world-leading homicide performance of 66 persons per 100,000 in 2005. At that time, South Africa was ranked 43 and Columbia 47."

'Absurdity'

Added Morgan: "When you break down the data, the rate of homicide in the Kingston metro-politan region is about 105 per 100,000. When it is broken down further, the North St Catherine Police Division homicide rate is as high as 210 per 100,000. Baghdad, a city at war, has a rate of 270 per 100, 000."

Against this background, he scoffed at the "absurdity"of split responsibility between the national security minister and the police commissioner for policy formation and implementation, respectively.

"We need to know where the buck stops," stated Morgan.