WITH the withdrawal of support from the Opposition for continued states of public emergency in St James, St Catherine North, Kingston Western and St Andrew South, the security forces will return to normal policing measures in these areas.

However, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, speaking following two days of consultations with the heads of the army and the Jamaica Constabulary Force on Tuesday, made it clear that members of the army will remain on the streets with the police.

“What we are going to do now in St James and in Spanish Town and Kingston is what we were doing before we declared the state of emergency; we will have our soldiers there with the police, there is going to be mass mobilisation, we are going to be doing our patrols, but we are going to be doing it with reduced capability.”

He argued that it was not for lack of normal policing that murders rose to a record high of more than 300 in St James prior to the declaration of a state of public emergemncy in the parish, and that in fact the security forces had employed normal policing measures, “to the extreme”.

He stressed that the motivation to cripple crime has not been diminished and that the security forces would work even harder with the remaining powers it has.

Meanwhile, the prime minister has sought to reassure citizens that Plan Secure Jamaica is in full effect.

Jamaica House said yesterday that plans to reclaim control of Jamaica’s security and safety followed a series of intense consultations with security experts and stakeholders.

During two days of security talks with police commissioner, Major General Antony Anderson and Chief of Defence Staff Major General Rocky Meade, Holness stressed that Plan Secure Jamaica was part of the continuation of the security arrangements.

“The plans will obviously include reconfiguration of the security deployment but it will ensure that presence is maintained. It will ensure that there are operations undertaken within the context of regular policing and it will ensure that the public will continue to have a sense of safety and security, particularly in those areas that have been badly affected by violence,” he said.

Plan Secure Jamaica, which the prime minister announced in his 2017/18 budget presentation, focuses on 10- strategic subject areas. That effort is being coordinated from the Office of the National Security Advisor by Colonel Roderick Williams. Plan Secure Jamaica focuses on violence and crime; public order; corruption; community safety; crisis response and resilience; justice; cyber defence; critical infrastructure protection and economic security.

Following Tuesday’s talks with the national security heads, the prime minister re-emphasised the use of the states of pubic emergency in cutting the crime rate.

“… It disrupted the planning cycle of the person with a criminal intent, so the tool, even if you don’t implement it, immediately changed the landscape for someone with criminal intent. There is no other tool really that allows the state to disrupt intent, opportunity and means. The definition of extreme circumstances is that the criminals are in control of the landscape in that they have great opportunities to commit crime, and they have the means; what a state of public emergency does is gives us the power to immediately relieve them of the opportunities by flooding the area but you are now giving the police and the military the ability to operate within the space having equal powers in the law,” said Holness.