MONTEGO BAY, St James — The police high command yesterday announced plans to place more emphasis on the one-year-old Get-the-Guns Campaign in a direct response a spiralling rate of murders, particularly here in St James.

“Although we are satisfied with the number of guns we have seized, we are still very concerned with the population being armed with illegal weapons. Currently, 80 per cent of our murders are being committed with the use of illegal firearms and, interestingly enough, the parish is showing more than 90 per cent of the murders were committed by persons using illegal firearms,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Glenroy Hinds, head of the crime portfolio, announced.

“So, a significant plank of our strategy is really to reduce the illegal flow of guns into the country.”

DCP Hinds noted that since the programme to retrieve the illegal guns was initiated by Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams in September of last year, it has resulted in the seizure of 655 illegal firearms, of which 95 per cent were “properly manufactured”.

Also confiscated were more than 9,000 rounds of ammunition, while arrested and charged were 652 people for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Warren Clarke, commander of Area 1, which includes the parishes of Trelawny, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland, stated that, of the 316 murders since this year in his area, some 237 were committed with the use of firearms.

He said that of the 200 murders in St James this year, 184, or 92 per cent, involved the use of guns.

“Since the start of the year, in Area 1, we have seized 148 firearms and 1,349 rounds of ammunition. Eighty-eight of those firearms and 810 rounds of ammunition were found in St James alone,” said Clarke.

He noted, too, that several wanted men, including three fingered in the recent spate of murders in St James, have been arrested this year.

The two senior policemen were speaking during a press conference hosted by Police Commissioner Dr Carl Williams at the Freeport Police Station in Montego Bay.

DCP Hinds also revealed the strengthening of partnership “with our United States law enforcement agents, the neighbouring Haitian, Dom Rep, Honduras, Costa Rica, and The Bahamas”.

Meanwhile, Dr Williams, who toured sections of the parish which have been torn by gun violence a week ago, resulting in the murders of more than a dozen people, said he was pleased with plans put in place to respond to the upsurge of murders in the parish.

“I am satisfied that the plans they have are good and they are going to yield some benefits for the people of Montego Bay and the wider St James,” Dr Williams stated.