IN his broadcast last night, the national security minister, Dr Peter Phillips, made the point that crime in Jamaica was everybody’s business.

One does not have to be a direct victim of crime to be affected by the consequences of crime. Indeed, this is manifest in the fear factor in some areas of the country, particularly in Kingston. The concern about movement at night and the prevalence of gated communities speak volumes.

So, Dr Phillips is correct. We all have a stake in fixing the problem.

But Dr Phillips is not the first minister to have made this point. The difficulty has been how to give practical application to this ideal.

Not least of the requirements, of course, is the need to rebuild trust between the citizenry and the law enforcement agencies — more specifically between the police and the public.

Dr Phillips says it is happening in inner-city communities where a deep, and wide, chasm had opened between the police and the people.

Part of the problem was the manner in which the Jamaican constabulary evolved over several decades. Crime fighting was a Storm Troop, jack-booted affair. It was not about subtlety and the application of intellect and the studied use of technology.

The upshot was the rising resentment in communities — whose young men were handled with impunity — towards the police.

That, though, is not the whole story. For the Jamaican police do, in fact, have a particularly difficult job. It is a harsh fact that nearly 600 people have been murdered in Jamaica so far this year. More than 800 were murdered in 2002.

A significant portion of those who are killed die by the gun. Many of those who shoot are not afraid to turn their weapons on the police. Often unprovoked — if there can be such a concept for people who carry illegal weapons.

Yet, the police report that the highest percentage of the murders in Jamaica each year is domestic; violence between people who know each other but have developed some altercation. Often it is a simple argument.

Which brings us back to one of the points made by Dr Phillips last night: the need for us as citizens and communities to take responsibility. For it is fact that communities sometimes — too often — shelter criminals, either out of fear or the perceived rewards to the community from the activities of the criminal. It is one element of the national pastime of “let off” — of getting something from someone for nothing.

As the minister stressed, Jamaicans have to come to grips with the issues of values and attitudes. In the past, attempts to address this issue has been ridiculed, but we continue to snicker at our peril.

Each individual has to begin to take responsibility for his/ her behaviour and relationship with the community. Each has to determine what kind of community and country he/she wants to live in and insist on a code of behaviour that brings us close to that ideal.

This takes courage and conviction. Sometimes it will mean running against the prevailing trends and may even evoke danger. But ultimately, that may be the price of saving the future.

All this, of course, does not mean letting Dr Phillips and the government off the hook with regard to their responsibility for creating an environment of relative security with credible policies that are effectively and efficiently applied. For that is a critical base for community action.

Except for the views expressed in the columns above, the articles published on this page do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Jamaica Observer.