ORANGE STREET, St James — Opposition Senator Peter Bunting has praised Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake, who took on that role about five months ago, for what he described as the top cop’s departure from a reliance on states of public emergency (SOEs).

Commissioner Blake took over from Major General Antony Anderson on March 19. Anderson served for six years and during that time SOEs were frequently used.

“Even while murders are down this year relative to last year, and we are thankful for that, I want to acknowledge the new commissioner because he hasn’t followed [Prime] Andrew Holness and [National Security Minister Dr] Horace Chang with that foolishness about state of emergency,” argued Bunting.

“All those years when they were scraping up a whole heap of young people in St James, locking them up without charge and letting them lose their jobs; making people look at them as if they are tainted, it still did not bring down murders and crime in St James,” he added.

Bunting, who was addressing a St James Central constituency conference held at Cornwall College on Sunday, also doubled down on the party’s position that the way in which the Holness Administration had been using SOEs was not only unconstitutional but ineffective.

“It was a misuse of resources and what we see now [is] no state of emergencies this year. For the first time in nine years, murders will come back into the range this JLP [Jamaica Labour Party] Administration inherited from the PNP [People’s National Party] Administration of Portia Simpson Miller,” stated Bunting, who served as national security minister between January 6, 2012 and February 25, 2016 in Simpson Miller’s Cabinet.

Based on crime statistics from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) between January 1 and August 3 of this year, murders were down 15.6 per cent when compared to the same period last year. The statistics showed that 692 murders were committed for the period in comparison to 820 last year.

Despite the reduction, Bunting said the number is still too high and he suggested that crime is also having an impact on the tourism industry.

“The travel advisory that the US has on Jamaica [is] putting the industry under pressure. Don’t let Pollyanna [Tourism Minister] Edmund Bartlett tell you any foolishness. The industry is under pressure. We see reductions in arrivals. We see reductions in room rates but a joined up PNP government with the Ministry of National Security working with the Ministry of Tourism will ensure that once again we are able to get those travel advisories removed,” stated Bunting.

He referenced the period between 2011 and 2016 when the security ministry received support from the tourism ministry, saying he hopes to replicate it.

“Comrade Wykeham McNeill [former tourism minister] was a great supporter of the JCF and especially along the tourism belt, the TEF [Tourism Enhancement Fund] bought more vehicles for the police than the Ministry of Finance. That should not be a one-time partnership because we see clouds on the horizon of the tourism sector right now,” warned Bunting.