( L - R ) THOMAS AND GOLDING
WITH CLOSE to 1,700 people murdered last year, Jamaicans are anticipating Government's plans to curb the nation's crime wave.
Crime, specifically murder, has been the island's number one problem for a decade, with an average of five people being killed each day in 2005.
The murder toll pushed the country ahead of South Africa and Columbia this year to become the world's murder capital.
Sixty-three of every 100,000 Jamaicans were murdered in 2005, the highest number of murders per capita in the world.
The Government took a number of approaches to solve the issue last year but despite the efforts the murder rate climbed.
Opposition Spokesman on National Security, Derrick Smith, told The Gleaner that the work of Operation Kingfish, one of the anti-crime initiatives, was not impressive. He contends that the unit should do much more work to win better public support.
"I won't say they haven't been doing some good work, but it's not at the point where I'm totally acclaiming them," he said.
"The mandate is to really dismantle the major criminal networks and we estimate that there are 13 such major networks operating in Jamaica. They were all involved in drug trafficking, illegal gun running and extortion. What we should do is consolidate intelligence collected years ago on these organisations, analyse it and develop operational approaches to create new leads," he said.
But according to Mr. Smith the Government's attempts in crime fighting has been "too cosmetic".
"The Government needs to understand to succeed it has to show courage and make crime the priority on its agenda," Mr. Smith said.
In his New Year's message, Opposition Leader Bruce Golding disclosed the members of a task force on crime headed by former Police Commissioner, Colonel Trevor Macmillan, whom he says will seek to identify solutions to the crime problem.
Meanwhile, the Major Investigation Team (MIT) set to start operation in early January is to comprise some of the forces most trained detectives and will operate under Operation Kingfish.
Commissioner Lucius Thomas says the formation of the team will play a role in the modernisation of the constabulary force.
- G.M.
