MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Arguing that communities outside of the anti-crime zones of special operations (ZOSO) are being left exposed to criminals because police and material resources are being diverted to special zones, General Secretary of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) Julian Robinson says the Government needs to urgently rethink the strategy.

“The entire [ZOSO] needs to be reviewed to make a determination as to deployment of resources because it is not working,” Robinson told journalists following a robust meeting of the PNP’s National Executive Council (NEC) at the Manchester High School on Sunday. PNP President Dr Peter Phillips was among those addressing the conference and responding to questions from the floor.

“The nature of the ZOSO means that you are pulling police resources from other areas into one specific geographic area,” said Robinson.

He cited St James, where Mount Salem was declared a special zone in September, as a prime example.

“What we are seeing in St James is that the problem (violent crime) is in the entire parish [but] you are diverting the resources into Mount Salem and there are other areas that are under-resourced. So what needs to happen is a review of ZOSO and a deployment into all the crime areas,” Robinson said.

Mount Salem and Denham Town are the areas declared special zones, so far, under the Law Reform (Zones of Special Operations) (Special Security and Community Development Measures) Act, which was passed in Parliament earlier this year.

The law gives the prime minister power — in consultation with the National Security Council — to declare an area a zone of special operations in order to tackle increased crime and volatility in a community. The prime minister is empowered to act after the police commissioner and the chief of defence staff make a request for such a declaration in writing.

Arguing that to begin with, Mount Salem was not the biggest problem area in terms of crime in St James, Robinson said that the Government’s strategy had meant that even more vulnerable communities had been left without adequate police cover.

According to Robinson, “when you pool [police and resources] like in Mount Salem, the rest of Montego Bay is left without adequate resources”. Yet he argued that Montego Bay and the wider St James — with more than 300 murders so far this year — “had it been ranked as a country, would be number one in the world for crime”.

Further, he said: “St James is haemorrhaging but other parishes are haemorrhaging too and the Government needs to come up with a plan that addresses these problems.”

Crime is Jamaica’s number one problem and people “don’t feel safe”, Robinson said.

Police Commissioner George Quallo is reported to have said earlier this month that more than 1,400 murders had occurred across Jamaica since the start of the year, in excess of 260 more than for the similar period last year.

Robinson said the Andrew Holness-led Jamaica Labour Party Government had failed to come up with an “adequate plan that inspires confidence and that leaves the public feeling that [Government] has an understanding of the problem”.

Mobility was a huge problem for the police, he said.

“The police men and women need more cars. The Government embarked on a policy — only done in Jamaica — of importing used cars. It has been a failure and the cars have not even been delivered. Mobility is needed for the police to carry out their jobs adequately,” Robinson said.