The Editor, Sir:

As we near the end of the year with another eye-popping murder rate, I must ask National Security Minister, Trevor MacMillan and Police Commissioner Hardley Lewin whether they will ever have a solution to the nation's crime problem.

The 200 gangs to which the national security minister referred as committing 80 per cent of the island's crimes are now close to being everywhere across the country. There is every indication that they intend to continue expanding their activities.

For example, criminals are infiltrating the business community of Mandeville with extortion threats. Senior citizens are being robbed after doing business at the banks, while early morning joggers are being attacked. Murders in Mandeville jumped from 29 in 2007 to 50 so far this year. This reflects the national trend.

What the national security ministry and the Police High Command are doing is totally ineffective and is allowing the country to slide deeper into disrepute as a high-crime nation.

Reduce crime

With 8,000 policemen and women and 4,000 military at its command, the national security ministry is not able to reduce crime in any of the nation's cities. It is obvious that MacMillan and Lewin lack the strategies required to do the job.

The 4,000 soldiers who sit around most of the time and are deployed after the gunmen have struck and gone must be placed on the street around the clock. This is the only reliable deterrent to crime.

For example, in addition to the police, if the police commissioner had six five-man military squads per shift working around the clock along with the Mandeville police, doing quota-driven stop and search of profiled vehicles, and doing frequent drive-throughs of targeted neighbourhoods, it is reasonable to believe that the murder rate in Mandeville would not have risen so far this year, but would have decreased.

In pursuance of that desirable outcome, I must ask the police commissioner if it would be worth his while to police several of the nation's towns to that extent. The country has the manpower to do it. There is nothing to prevent the police commissioner from doing it, except himself.

Public payroll

It is unbelievable that we have two military men on the public payroll (MacMillan and Lewin), and neither one appears to know how to secure a small town.

It will be interesting to see if Minister MacMillan and Commissioner Lewin will be able to take effective command of the nation's crime fighting with the addition of new police vehicles next year.

I am, etc.,

E. REID

ewarta.reid@verizon.net

Philadelphia

PA