THE St Andrew South Police Division last year recorded one of its biggest drops in murders.

Head of the division, Senior Superintendent Michael Stewart, said for the 12-month period a total of 63 murders were recorded in the division, which he said represented the lowest recorded in the division since 1990. There were 104 murders in the division in 2013.

This performance for the first time, Stewart said, removed the division from being the leader in terms of murder within the Corporate Area.

According to Stewart, the division for a five-year period, starting in 2004, recorded more than 200 murders annually, except in 2006 when the total number of murder reported was 187.

The highest number of murders in the division for any one-year period was recorded in 2005 when a total of 270 persons were killed.

The reduction in murders in the tough police division last year was attributed to a collaborative effort with various stakeholders. The partnership, he said, led to a clampdown on several gangs which once wreaked havoc in that section of the capital city.

“… The statistics underscored the usefulness of this approach, as in 2013 a total of 72 per cent of the 104 murders reported were gang-related, compared to 67 per cent of the murders in 2014. If we were successful in eliminating the gangs, the number of murders reported would have been 20 [in 2014],” the senior superintendent of police told the Jamaica Observer.

According to the police, there were 47 gangs operating in the division that has 37 inner-city communities, including the tough Waterhouse, Riverton City and Majesty Gardens.

The clampdown on gang operations, said the police, resulted in some volatile communities, including Tavares Gardens and Greenwich Town, not recording a single murder for the entire year.

— Kimmo Matthews