KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition Spokesman on National Security, Senator Peter Bunting is expressing alarm at what he said is a spike in murders. 

According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF’s) Periodic Crime Statistics Review for June 26, there have been 113 murders in the last three weeks.

The Opposition noted that murders have increased by 5.5 per cent year-to-date when compared with 2020, with a number of police divisions having increases in the order of 50 per cent.

“What is particularly disappointing is that only a few weeks ago I acknowledged in the Senate that the JCF was seeing better results in violent crime this year relative to last year, and without the states of emergency.  At the time, murders were down two per cent year to date. Has someone dropped the ball to have such a sharp and sudden deterioration? The minister needs to explain what has precipitated this spike and outline the measures being taken to mitigate the spike,” Bunting said. 

Noting that St James has accounted for only five of the 113 murders in the last three weeks, Bunting said the Norwood Zone of Special Operation (ZOSO) cannot be the mitigating measure.

The People’s National Party (PNP) said it is concerned that critical data necessary for stakeholders to assess the crime situation continues to be withheld by the JCF.  It argued that the breakout of the victims of murder amongst males, females, and children is no longer provided. Likewise, it said there is no data on sexual offences against children. 

The PNP said these figures were previously provided on a weekly basis by the JCF for over a decade. It said it especially finds this perplexing as violence against women and girls has been a recent topic of national discourse and media reports of these incidents suggest they are on the increase.

The Opposition further observed that all categories of arrests are now reported as one figure instead of separating them into arrests with evidence under the Firearms Act; arrests with evidence under the Dangerous Drugs Act; or arrests under the Disaster Risk Management Act. 

Stakeholders deserve to know whether the reported increase in arrests corresponds to more violent criminals being taken off the streets for gun offences, or whether it is delinquent party goers arrested for breaking curfew, the PNP said.

“We have been calling for greater transparency from the Ministry of Security and the JCF, and in particular, to return to the well-established practice of issuing detailed crime data to the key stakeholders. Suppressing statistics on how many women and children are affected by violent crime, and on the categories of arrests, represent a deliberate and clumsy attempt to obfuscate the data,” Bunting added.

He said the minister and the commissioner must understand that suppressing crime statistics will not lessen public fear but that it is only by fixing crime through a professional and transparent JCF that public confidence will be restored.