Shields

WESTERN BUREAU

As the authorities battle to control the country's worrying crime problem, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is suggesting that the Ministry of National Security should conduct an independent national crime survey in an effort to strategise more effectively.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mark Shields, explains that the purpose of this survey is to give a true picture of offences committed across the country.

True picture

"There are many reasons why people do not report crimes to the police, and all of the evidence would suggest, across the world, that where an independent crime survey is conducted, we tend to get a true picture of crime," the British cop stated.

"One of the only statistics that I feel is relatively accurate is the statistics around murder for obvious reasons. Other crime statistics, we treat with some healthy skepticism."

Jamaica had a record 1,671 homicides in 2005, with a 22 per cent reduction last year. While the police managed to rein in killings in the Cor-porate Area in 2006, western and central sections of the island experienced a sharp rise in violent crimes primarily in the parishes of St. James and Clarendon.

DCP Shields, who referred to the survey at a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum in Montego Bay, admitted that in cases where the study was conducted, the results painted a dismal picture.

He admitted that the project would be very costly but was one of the crime-fighting measures adopted by most European countries and some states in the United States of America.

"I think we can say, that in general terms, that if we improve policing, if it becomes more effective, and by that I mean, that we have high visibility police patrols in the right place at the right time, then inevitably crime will go down," he commented.

Anonymous basis

"If it's done properly and thoroughly, I think the proposition would be every three to five years. I think the British crime survey is every five years."

The survey is a questionnaire that goes out to thousands of people and is conducted on an anonymous basis.