A fresh squabble has developed between the Government and the Opposition over the use of states of emergency (SOEs).

Hours after the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) announced on Thursday that SOEs had been declared across the parishes of Hanover and St James, as well as St Catherine and Clarendon, Opposition spokesman on national security Peter Bunting told the Jamaica Observer that this was nothing but a political move.

“What we are seeing now is a pattern where, when the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) annual conference is approaching, the week or so before, states of emergency are declared. This is clearly an attempt by the prime minister to signal that they are doing something about crime.

“But it is clearly more performative than being effective, and I think this is a concerning trend that the prime minister is using security measures for political optics rather than genuine public safety,” said Bunting as he pointed out that SOEs were declared in Clarendon, St Catherine, St James, Westmoreland, and Hanover and sections of Kingston and St Andrew days before the JLP annual conference last year, and now three days before the conference this year.

Responding to Bunting, minister with responsibility for information Robert Morgan told the Observer that the public must be getting “sick and tired” of the Opposition spokesman repeatedly questioning the recommendations of the leadership of the security forces for SOEs to be declared.

“There is no connection between a declaration of the SOEs and a political event. We are not an irresponsible Government. Maybe he would have functioned like that when he was the national security minister but our Government does not function like that,” Morgan said.

“The SOEs are about saving lives. Last year, when we declared the SOEs we saved lives. We saw a 40 per cent reduction in murders in January and it has carried us almost to the end of the year where we are now at a 10 per cent reduction year-on-year because of the SOEs and other security measures implemented,” added Morgan.

But Bunting argued that if the Administration of Prime Minister Andrew Holness had maintained the average annual murder rate under the prior Portia Simpson Miller Administration, 2,000 additional Jamaicans would be alive today without the SOEs.

“On average the annual number of murders has increased by 25 per cent under the Andrew Holness Administration. So this gaslighting that SOEs work is absolute rubbish because, on average, hundreds more people are murdered every year despite the unprecedented and extensive use of SOEs,” said Bunting.

“What works is saturation policing. Any community like Salt Spring or Meggie Top [in St James] where you have these spikes in violent crimes, if you saturate the community with hundreds of police and hundreds of soldiers you are going to find a reduction in the opportunity for crime to take place,” he said.

“So it is not SOEs. Putting up check points at entrances to parishes is not what is reducing crime in Salt Spring, it is the saturation policing strategies, and the JLP continues with this big lie that in order to have police and soldiers in communities in their numbers you need a state of emergency to be declared,” added Bunting.

He pointed out that the Holness Administration has the option of declaring high crime communities zones of special operation (ZOSOs), which the Opposition supports.

“But they don’t use it because they don’t want to do the social investments which these demand. Under a ZOSO, in the short term you would hold down the violence but you would invest in these communities that are generating most of the violence.

“It is the same communities where you have raw sewage in the street, garbage collecting infrequently, housing stock run-down, failing schools [and] it is not coincidental that you have those conditions aligned with the high-crime communities. So you cannot keep dealing with the short term; you have to invest long term to solve these problems in a sustainable way,” said Bunting.

In an early morning release on Thursday, OPM said the decision to declare the latest SOEs underscores the Government’s commitment to the safety and security of Jamaicans.

According to OPM, Governor General Sir Patrick Allen authorised these SOEs upon the advice of the commissioner of police and the chief of defence staff.

The release quoted Police Commission Major General Antony Anderson as pointing to “the alarming situation” in the four police divisions where the latest SOEs have been declared.

“The Clarendon Police Division recorded the fifth-highest number of murders (99) among all police divisions, marking a 14 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2022. Clarendon and St Catherine, being adjoining parishes, intensify our concerns, accounting for 24 per cent of the nation’s murders since the beginning of the year.

“In the St James Police Division, the highest number of murders across all divisions was recorded, totalling 169 from January 1 to November 15, 2023. This division also experienced the highest number of shooting incidents, totalling 101 during the same period. The adjacency of St James and Hanover further exacerbates the situation, with their combined geographical area accounting for 20 per cent of the nation’s murders since the year’s start,” Anderson was quoted as saying.

The release also quoted the prime minister as stressing the vital role of community cooperation in cauterising crime.

“The cooperation of every Jamaican is essential. We must unite to ensure our nation’s safety. These measures are temporary but critical in augmenting the efforts of our security forces, which have yielded significant results. The Government continues to invest in enhancing our nation’s security infrastructure,” Holness reportedly said.

He also said that the SOEs enable the security forces, including the Jamaica Defence Force, to conduct targeted operations aimed at dismantling criminal networks and curbing murders.

“The Government assures the public that the safety and security of all Jamaicans remain its highest priority,” the release quoted Holness.