Robert Buddan
One of the conclusions that we can draw from Dr. Peter Phillips' address to the nation last week is that Jamaica can beat crime. He gave reasons to believe so. Murders across the country went down by 20 per cent in 2006. Murders in Kingston and St. Andrew declined even greater, by 31 per cent. Jamaica's efforts at beating back dangerous, globally organised, wealthy, and experienced cocaine traffickers is not to go without credit either.
Data from the United Nations, according to Dr. Phillips, showed that 20 per cent of the cocaine entering the United States in 2004 passed through Jamaica. This was cut to only two per cent in 2006.
Initiatives
Community initiatives show that people can clean up their localities. The Matthews Lane community saw 38 murders in 2005, but only nine last year. The results in the Brown's Town community of eastern Kingston were even more dramatic.
The 65 murders in 2005 were reduced to just one in 2006. Other communities in South St. Andrew and Grants Pen have similarly contained murders. It is therefore wise to follow the advice of the Opposition Spokesman on National Security not to panic.
Additionally, crime statistics for this January show that shooting, break-ins, rape, and larceny declined when compared to January of 2005 and 2006; and murder is less than it was for 2005. Jamaicans are also getting more involved.
The Crime Stop Centre reports that calls to the police increased by 36 per cent in 2006 over 2005, leading to a greater number of arrests for a number of crimes. The police commissioner now has plans to reduce murders by seven per cent this year. This is a conservative target as the police had set last year and hopefully, they will surpass it.
Still, for the past three years the 'displacement effect', as Dr. Phillips calls it, has been evident in Montego Bay. The St. James Police High Command had identified hot spots of crime like Norwood, Salt Spring, Quarry, Bottom Pen, Blood Lane, Canterbury, and Green Pond where 80 per cent of the murders in St. James had been committed over the past five years.
The evidence is strong that a combination of the 'deportee effect', and the gun and drug trade had combined with the displacement effect to hit Montego Bay and rural areas.
Dr. Phillips has nonetheless concluded that Jamaica does not need another crime plan and the truth is that the country would not have accepted this.
There have been too many already. Neither does Dr. Phillips want or need to say that the present crime plan is not working since the evidence shows important successes. But the latest Johnson polls show that crime is still Jamaica's biggest concern, and by a wide margin, and murders have increased by 23 per cent this January over last January. So, what Dr. Phillips believes we need is more and better policing.
Hot spots
This new and better policing will come through new initiatives to address a number of different but related concerns. One is the rising crime rate in the rural parishes, especially the tourism parishes. Therefore, police hot spots and Operation Kingfish will go rural and go west. Another is the renewed attention to police corruption and the need for a better quality force subject to more effective oversight.
So, the Civilian Oversight Authority and the anti-corruption unit of the JCF will be strengthened and the Police Services Regulations will be revisited to make it easier to fire corrupt policemen and women. Furthermore, new technology and tactics will match greater mobility and sophistication of criminal networks.
Fingerprinting
Technology will range from low end technology like telephone call lines to medium end technology like fingerprinting to high end technology like DNA evidence. Finally new laws, like the long-awaited Proceeds of Crime Act will empower the authorities to make sure that crime does not pay and criminals cannot glorify themselves in wealth and influence.
Dr. Phillips has felt that the number of police as a ratio of the population is too low, and this compares badly with other Caribbean countries. It is even poorer when seen in terms of our higher murder rate. Dr. Phillips can now recruit more and better trained police, as he wants to. A major recruitment drive will get underway, the combined forces of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) will be deployed, and human capability will be enlarged by the intelligence, speed and mobility of technology.
Confidence-building
The address to the nation aimed at building confidence in the existing crime plan by adding new and necessary ingredients. Confidence in the police can be easily shaken and the rise in murders in January is a blow. To compound matters, confidence is undermined by new revelations of police corruption.
Public concerns about police misconduct have shifted from police brutality to police corruption. It is disappointing that after so much has been invested in policing there is still a serious problem with corruption. Indeed, Minister Phillips admits that, "a critical success factor is the building of public confidence in our law enforcement organisations."
While that is going on, it makes sense for the society to rely even more on civic organisations and community policing. The successes in Matthews Lane, Brown's Town and Grants Pen would support this emphasis. The evidence should attract those international partners like AMCHAM whose role has been important.
The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce says law and order will be its priority. Here is an opportunity for it to step forward and give help to the communities. Commerce and security go together. Minister Phillips is right to have said that crime was a threat to the well-being of the Jamaican people and the economy.
Community policing draws upon community interests to build the bonds that can withstand social crime, political divisions, and police abuse. But for this to succeed, communities have to build their neighbourhood watch organisations, share information with the police, take advantage of the Community Security Initiative and the Citizens Security and Justice Programme, build more police youth clubs and assist the crime management initiative. As the Minister explained, even efficient policing will not solve our problems. Community participation is vital to have the safe, secure, socially cohesive and productive society that we want.
Securing economy
Minister Phillips is chairman of CARICOM's Mobilisation sub-committee on crime and security. Jamaica is nearest to the Miami-Cuba corridor and the Haiti-Dominican Republic network of gun, drug and people trafficking. Jamaica therefore has a major role to play in security.
There is nothing in Dr. Phillips' analysis that suggests that the killings of January are related to the expected elections. But criminals benefit from undermining law and order and law and order are critical for elections.
The Minister of Finance has said that 2006 was a good year and he expects 2007 to be even better. For all of these reasons it is vital that we turn around the murder trends in February if we are to rebuild confidence in the events of the rest of the year. The cricket world cup starts in March, the budget follows in April, and elections can come anytime after May.
Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, Mona, UWI. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm
