QUESTION 1:Crime Reduction Plans/Solutions to

Crime and Voilence

CRIME REDUCTION PLANS
This question was answered in the Vision 2030 National Development Plan so I will repeat
the findings here and then you can figure out which parts you can directly help to
implement instead of waiting on politicians to find the political will to deal with the problem
properly.

Citizens need to hold politicians of both parties accountable in executing the plans they
agreed on.

Issues and Challenges

 High Murder Rate

 Guns, Gangs and the Transnational Drugs Trade
 Dons and Garrison Communities
 Domestic Violence
 Violence Against Children
 Geographic Distribution of Violence
 High Percentage of Youth Involvement
 High Percentage of Males in Criminality
 Inadequate Institutional Capacity
 Low Level of Societal Trust in the Security Forces
National Strategies

Strengthen the Capacity of Communities to Participate in Creating a Safe and Secure

Society

 Improve the implementation of targeted community interventions

 Implement holistic programmes focusing on prevention and suppression of
youth involvement in crime
 Promote awareness and care for vulnerable groups
 Establish/strengthen community groups and councils
 Develop programmes to mobilise and draw on societal support for safer
communities
 Improve community conformity to legal requirements
Reform and Modernize the Law Enforcement System

 Devise and implement effective management framework aligned to a modern

model of policing
 Support the reform of the Justice System
 Create a comprehensive human resources development system to ensure
professionalism within law enforcement agencies
 Develop a holistic approach to the welfare of law enforcement officers
  Strengthen accountability frameworks within law enforcement agencies
 Modernize the approach to policing activities
 Facilitate a culture of integrity and ethical behaviour with law enforcement
agencies (JCF, JDF, PICA, DCS)
 Improve the quality of services provided by law enforcement agencies (JCF,
JDF, Department of Customs and PICA)
Improve the Security of the Border and Territorial Waters

 Strengthen security mechanisms at ports of entry

 Improve institutional capacity to monitor marine and aerial domains
 Ensure a coordinated national response to threats of terrorism
 Advance the regulatory framework for non-citizens
 Fortify collaboration with regional partners and international bodies
Strengthen the Anti-Crime Capability of Law Enforcement Agencies

 Increase access to policing services

 Improve communication and information technology infrastructure
 Roll out community policing in all communities island-wide
 Adequately equip law enforcement agencies to deliver a timely response
 Reinforce the regulatory framework for private security firms
Strengthen the Management, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Clients of the
Correctional Services

 Expand the framework for rehabilitation of inmates and offenders

 Strengthen the institutional capacity of the DCS and its partners
 Provide suitable alternatives to incarceration for offenders who are mentally ill
where appropriate
 Establish a comprehensive system for the reintegration and rehabilitation of
deportees through partnership between state and non-state actors
 Develop an appropriate framework for human resource development within
DCS

EDUCATION OFFICER THINKS CRIME CAN REDUCE

Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at The Mico University College, Dr.
Albert Benjamin, has cited education as one of the most critical elements in addressing
crime in Jamaica.

He noted that education shapes values and attitudes and transforms lives, and research
has shown a correlation between high levels of education and low crime rate. “We must
have our people thinking that education has traction,” he said at a recent JIS Think
Tank.
Dr. Benjamin was providing details about The Mico University College’s annual
Research Day, slated for Wednesday (April 26), which will place the spotlight on
education as a solution to crime.

He noted that as Jamaica puts measures in place to deal with the issue, the country is
also faced with the fact that a large percentage of young people are leaving secondary
school without a subject, which limits their access to the formal economy.

“That is one of the critical things that we need to address,” he said. “The Mico University
College is aware that education affects everything, and the concern has always been
how we tackle this monster of crime,” he added.

“One of the ways that we try to intervene at Mico is to ensure that all our student-
teachers, when they leave the system, should be able to solve problems. Our graduates
won’t be going into the classroom stymied or shocked, and even if they are, they will get
over it and recognise that they have a responsibility to deal with the issues that they find
in the classrooms,” he pointed out.

Dr. Benjamin said that teachers must make it their personal responsibility to ensure that
persons under their charge have access to the economy because “if they don’t,
everyone will be affected”.

“As a teacher, you do not have a choice in seeing a child struggling and ignoring that
child; you don’t have this option. As the slogan says ‘every child can learn… every child
must learn’,” he pointed out.

Twenty-four papers will be presented during Research Day 2017, looking at various
topics such as anti-crime strategies for counsellors; positively engaging the mind
through investigating the environment: an alternative to crime and violence; fourth and
fifth graders’ perception of the influence of community and family violence on their
academic performance; teach, reach and touch; a value-based approach to reducing
the incidence of crime and violence in Jamaica; the effects of trauma in the classroom;
and intellectual violence in Jamaican schools.

PCPP HELPS COMMUNITY TO FIGHT CRIME

As part of its thrust to tackle criminal activities across the country, the Ministry of National
Security has embarked on a series of parish consultations to hear the security concerns of
residents at the local level. The initiative, called the Parish Crime Prevention Programme
(PCPP), has already been launched in Clarendon, St. Elizabeth, St. James, Manchester and
Portmore and Spanish Town in St. Catherine. It will be introduced to other parishes in the near
future.
Senior Director of the Strategic Planning Policy Evaluation and Research Division in the
Ministry, Lieutenant Colonel Oral Khan, explains to JIS News that the programme, which began
just over a year ago, identifies communities that are experiencing worrying crime trends.
“The Parish Crime Prevention Programme sees us going into the respective parishes that have
been identified, based on the crime situation that has been occurring in those parishes. We go
to these parishes and consult with the people and hear their concerns on crime and security
issues relating to their respective parishes and from there we develop plans of action to improve
security in those parishes,” he says.
He further informs that crime prevention committees are established to implement the
recommendations, which come from the people, thus allowing them to engage residents in the
various communities in the crime prevention efforts.
Colonel Khan outlines how the parishes in which the programme has been implemented, are
chosen.”We identified the parishes based on certain trends that were emerging in the crime
pattern. St. Catherine, for example was one of the parishes that had a very high crime rate last
year. May Pen in Clarendon recorded high crime levels and the area around Montego Bay and
St. James also had a high crime rate. We went to Manchester, not necessarily because of a
high crime rate, but we also wanted to ensure that those areas which are relatively safe remain
that way. We went to St. Elizabeth because of some worrying trends in that parish,” he points
[Link] the programme is established in a parish, concerned citizens and stakeholders are
organized to implement recommendations, which come out of the various forums that are held.
“We seek to involve stakeholders from the community, the church, government entities like the
Social Development Commission, Youth, the Police and the business community. We are
seeking to get the parish councillors involved and so they are also invited to be a part,” Colonel
Khan tells JIS News.
Once the recommendations have been received from the various consultations held, the Senior
Director says the committees are asked to go through the list of recommendations to determine
the ones that are feasible, practical and can be implemented within the parish.
The committees are then asked to help mobilize resources from the community until help comes
from outside. “So they have a primary task of seeking to implement the recommendations from
the people on the ground and they are guided by a set of terms of reference from the Ministry of
National Security and we keep in touch with these communities and offer support,” he says.
The issues to be dealt with at the parish level vary from one area to the next. “There are
concerns about praedial larceny in the more rural communities. In most parishes, there are
concerns about youth crime or youth involvement in crime as well as opportunities that are
available for young people. There are also concerns about sex offences, traffic management in
the towns, extortion, and of course, the homicides,” Colonel Khan points out.
As the programme seeks to address some of these issues, the Senior Director notes that they
are very encouraged by the response received in every area they have been. “People have
come and participated, people have spoken freely and frankly giving a lot of recommendations,
a lot of which are practical,” he explains, adding that residents also get an opportunity to hear
from the Police Superintendent responsible for the division, who would give a report on what is
being done to help improve the [Link] an evaluation conducted a month ago, in which
the leaders of these committees were brought in, Colonel Khan says data received indicated
that some of the issues have been dealt with in the majority of areas where the crime prevention
committees were introduced.
“Now all of this is not necessarily credited to the work of the committee but there is a correlation
in that the areas that we have had these committees have tended to show no increase in the
incidence of crime and has started to trend in the right direction,” he tells JIS News.
Already, there are plans to expand the programme. “We are moving to another stage in the
crime prevention programme and that is to go one step down from the parish committee to what
we are calling community safety and security groups,” Colonel Khan explains. “We are going to
pay a bit more attention to some of the communities in the Corporate Area, which are plagued
with crime and violence,” he says.
There are also plans to look at some communities, which are targeted for special social
intervention, a number of which will fall under the community security initiative. Others will be
included in the project, which gets off the ground next year.
Colonel Khan points out that where groups are already organized at the community and parish
levels, they will be further enhanced. “We will work with those groups and just seek to get them
to embrace the agenda of security issues that come out of consultation with the people,” he
says.
The Senior Director says that the programme implemented in Montego Bay is probably the most
effective of the committees established. “Because of the close link that is there with the
business committee and the parish development committee, that model has worked and so
what we will do is to build on that,” he says.
For residents who participate in the programme, they are not left on their own, as a Programme
Co-ordinator from the Ministry keeps in touch to maintain constant discussion.
While the programme has not yet accomplished all it has set out to do, Colonel Khan is
confident that it will assist to reduce crime. “We desire to see a reduction in the incidence of
violence. We are hoping to build a network of communities and challenge communities as well,
to participate a bit more in bringing about the conditions conducive to safety and security of
those communities,” he says.