MONTEGO BAY, St James — As part of efforts to bring this year’s murder tally below 100 for the parish, head of the St James Police Division, Superintendent Eron Samuels, says there will be a focus on addressing domestic disputes.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Domestic Violence Intervention Cross County Tour that was held at the Harbour City Mall in the western city on Tuesday.

“Even if we get the gang-related murders down, we don’t want the numbers to go up with the domestic incidents. This is a great initiative and we’ll be continuing the push to have that reduction in domestic violence and all sorts of violence within St James,” Samuels said.

Last year St James recorded 125 murders, 62 fewer than 2023. Samuels and his team are working to further reduce the numbers which have been trending down over the last several months.

“St James has had a history of violent crimes and we [have] our fair share of domestic violence. What we want to achieve out of this is to cut down on the number of domestic violence incidents of murders, shootings that may take place,” said Samuels.

“It may even be with the use of the knife, with the fists, anything at all. What we want to do is to try and create a new culture in St James, one that is less violent, one that speaks to love, one that speaks to family building, one that speaks to development,” he added.

Samuels stressed that it is imperative that individuals understand how to handle conflict.

“There are some murders that happen that…are not gang-related, but there are things that could have been resolved if persons knew how to deal with their domestic and interpersonal issues differently,” argued Samuels.

“We are encouraging individuals to reach out to our officers if they have issues. If we can manage it, we will refer. We have a number of stakeholders that are here with us that we work closely with. We are not saying we are the be all, end all; what we are saying is that we can point you in the right direction if needs be,” added Samuels.

He said there are plans to bring other stakeholders on board.

“We want to ensure that we bring in our police youth clubs, our neighbourhood watch groups, our Safe Schools Programme, all of these come together to ensure that we have that sub-100 target that we are aiming for in St James,” he said.

Deputy Superintendent Jacqueline Dillon, the National Domestic Violence Intervention liaison officer for the JCF underscored the important of tackling domestic violence as she pointed out that this has been at the heart of some of the issues of gang violence plaguing the country.

“Oftentimes we separate some incidents and say it’s just gangs; but when we look at the root cause sometimes, in the middle of it you have domestic violence incidents,” Dillon told the Jamaica Observer.

“When we talk about gangs within the gang itself you still have domestic violence incidents in there, and we have seen that in St James too as well,” she pointed out.

According to Dillon, this is why it is important to try and deal with the issue of domestic violence by sensitising the public.

Dillon, who noted that there are already three domestic violence-related murders reported in the country so far this year, is hoping that it doesn’t go into double digits.

“It is promotions like this, when we go and partner with local groups to talk about domestic violence, it is what helps to reduce some of the incidents,” she said of Tuesday’s event.

This is the third year that the tour is taking place, and St James was its third stop for 2025.

“We go to divisions and parishes where domestic violence is high and we do a pop up with the JCF band [and] other stakeholders so that persons know that it is not just the police that is out there to help. There are other organisations such as the Bureau of Gender Affairs, CISOCA [Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse], there are the courts, restorative justice centres, and other organisations that are critical to the continuum of care process,” Dillon noted.

She pointed out that programmes already in place have yielded positive results even though there is still more work to be done.

“Last year we ramped up domestic violence intervention right across the island and our reports are suggesting that we are seeing far less incidents than we normally see, and we have far less number of deaths out of domestic violence last year compared to previous years,” Dillon disclosed.