Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson visited Jamaicans living in North America last week and told them that the strategies being employed by the Government to combat crime and violence are designed to treat both as separate problems.

“The biggest predictor of violence is previous acts of violence. It doesn’t operate like crime, and, therefore, the measures to deal with violence are different,” General Anderson said at a meeting in New York on Thursday. “Crime is largely done for economic gain, while violence is a cycle which thrives on previous acts of violence and, therefore, you cannot use violence to stop violence.”

Anderson had delivered a similar message in Toronto, Canada, two days before as he participated in the Jamaica National Group’s 2018 ‘Outlook for the Future’ forum. A similar forum was held in Birmingham and London, in the United Kingdom, last month.

Reiterating the various measures that the State has already implemented to secure Jamaica, the police commissioner said crime and violence are a hindrance to economic development and, therefore, expenditure on crime must be treated as an investment.

“We have lost significant amounts of our gross domestic product (GDP) and reduced elements of our growth potential as a result of crime, violence and corruption,” Anderson said.

“We have had decades of flat growth and that kind of environment [creates a] disincentive [for] investment. We have eroded the sense of confidence and public safety which are required to provide a fertile ground for people to invest,” he continued, noting that the Jamaican Diaspora contributes 34 per cent to the country’s GDP.

“Crime works like a drought or famine; it saps energy from the economy, and it stops people from functioning normally. It does it slowly and it eats away at you for a long time,” Anderson said.

He said that there is a clear distinction between crime and violence and, in that vein, noted that efforts were targeted to treat both challenges differently.

The overarching vision for security in Jamaica, the commissioner said, is encapsulated in the Government’s five-pillar strategy, which speaks to: effective policing, swift and sure justice, crime prevention through social development, situational crime prevention, and reduced reoffending.

He pointed to the Zones of Special Operation, highlighting the fact that the legislation mandates the use of social intervention, to encourage behaviour change in communities declared as “zones” under the Act. He said emphasis is also to be placed on rehabilitation in the nation’s prisons, to reduce recidivism and the further hardening of criminals.

“The average time for people in prison is three years. What that means is that we have three years in which we have their undivided attention, and we can do with those three years as we choose because they are going to spend three years learning, one way or another,” the commissioner said.

He also pointed to corruption in the public sector, including the police force, as a contributing factor to the state of security in Jamaica, which has to be managed and culled.

Noting that guns are used in more than 80 per cent of murders, the commissioner said that the flow of firearms into Jamaica is a priority in the crime-reduction plan.

“Guns come into the country through networks. Networks operate like pipelines, so they can carry guns, they can carry ammunition, they can carry drugs or they can carry people, and they can carry illicit goods. People facilitate the movements, whether through formal or informal ports,” he said, pointing out that there are 145 informal ports in Jamaica.

The commissioner also told his audience that the Government has invested in technology to improve the monitoring and response of the security forces and port authority to the flow of weapons and other illegal items. Some of the new devices, he said, will be rolled out by year-end.

In addition, he announced that changes will be made to the Firearms Act to include an offence to distribute or traffic guns, as, currently, individuals can only be charged for possession under the law.

“We have to use these short-term measures to interrupt violence. If we don’t interrupt violence it will feed on itself and create its own violence,” he said.

Earl Jarrett, chief executive officer of Jamaica National Group, who also addressed the fora, said, “we know that the inhibiting factors to increased investment are the level of crime and violence in Jamaica, and we recognise that they are of primary concern among Jamaicans locally and in the diaspora.”

He added that the harsh realities of crime in Jamaica mean that “We also need to scrutinise the measures being implemented to eradicate this blight on our country, which seriously hampers citizen safety and development initiatives in both the Government and the private sector.”

The Outlook for the Future series, which is in its 15th year, has successfully brought together representatives of successive Jamaican governments and key leaders overseas to engage in frank, open discussions about issues of national importance to Jamaicans locally and in the diaspora.