State of Public Emergency in the St. Catherine North Police Division

This crime fighting strategy has been inefficiently implemented and is having some unwanted outcomes. If not addressed soon, the intentions of the Prime Minister will not be met and many a citizen will be perplexed. What are your views on this? See my thoughts here.

As most Jamaicans know, there is currently a State of Public Emergency in the St. Catherine North Police Division. Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, declared this strategy in early March 2018 in an attempt to curb the increasing crime rate in the division. For the first quarters in 2016, 2017 and 2018, the Murder Statistics for this division were 21, 30 and 48 respectively, as published in the Jamaica Gleaner, March 18, 2018. Since the declaration of this State of Public Emergency, at least three wanted men have been detained.

While I encourage every effort to curb crime and violence, I believe that we must apply some tact to the way we do things to ensure that targets are met and our efforts are not undermined. These are the 2 major shortcomings that I find with the current State of Emergency in the St. Catherine North Division:

1. Ineffective Search of Motor Vehicles & Individuals- Since the declaration of this state of public emergency I have not been searched once, even though the vehicle in which I have been travelling in has been pulled over at a check point at least 30 times. Every time I drove through a check point, the police officer only came to the window and stared at my face as though he attempted to somehow read my mind or use his telepathic powers to find out if I am carrying an illegal firearm and ammunition. For these 30 times that I have been through the checkpoints, there could have been something illegal in the vehicle or on my person and I would have gone through just the same.
2. Avoiding the "Real" Problem- The Prime Minister has stated that the state of emergency seeks to reduce the murder rate in the St. Catherine North police division. However, the method applied by the Security Officers seems to be avoiding those areas where the real criminals reside. Honestly, the criminals are not dressed in jacket suits in a car on the by-pass at 6:30am complaining how the state of emergency will make them late for work, that would be us- the law-abiding citizens. So you need not concentrate so much man power on searching us. Every one under God knows the communities in St. Catherine wherein the criminals reside. These are the places where the officers should rade and I promise that much of the Prime Minister's targets will be met before July when the state of emergency is slated to end in the division.

Recommendations:

1. If you're going to do a search, just do it- Comprehensively search the vehicle and its occupants, but don't do this early mornings and late evenings when persons are travelling to and from work unless there are sufficient officers to do this without causing a pile up of traffic.
2. Rotate and Shift Check Points- Currently, check points are placed on the major thoroughfares. However, persons who live in the parish will obviously know how to move around freely without having to use these major thoroughfares. In order to be efficient, check points must be shifted in such a way that the public cannot anticipate where the next one will be erected.

In concluding, I do believe that the intentions of the Prime Minister and Security Forces are genuine but the way in which they organize their efforts leaves much to be required by the public, especially those of us who are made late for work by the inefficient check points which only serve to intimidate us with some ugly faces and nothing else.