WITH 47 murders reported for February this year, Jamaica has recorded its lowest monthly homicide tally in 25 years, according to Minister of Information Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon.

She made the announcement on Tuesday at the weekly post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House where she also shared that murders were down 35 per cent year to date, compared with the similar period in 2024.

“We need to put that in context — that is the lowest monthly count since 2000. In 25 years this has been the lowest number of murders in a month,” she emphasised, adding that Jamaica Constabulary Force should be celebrated for the marked reduction in murders.

“This is a historic low number. It means we’re going in the right direction, all the work that has been done is bearing fruit, and so Jamaica, we need to celebrate this,” Morris Dixon said.

“When the numbers were going up it was all over the place — everybody was stressed, everybody was talking about what’s happening in the country. Now we have it going in the other direction, let’s celebrate it,” she added.

The information minister shared that in 2000 she was in the second year of her studies at The University of the West Indies. With a number of students from Caribbean School of Media and Communication attending the briefing, which was used to recognise female Cabinet ministers and other senior female civil servants ahead of International Women’s Day this Saturday, Morris Dixon commented that some of the students were not even born in the year 2000.

“So this is a historic number, and it’s a historic day, and I want you to celebrate it,” she reiterated.

“We can’t just look at the statistics kind of dispassionately — that’s 63 less people killed, 63 less mothers mourning their child’s death, 63 less funerals that we have to do. It’s a big deal, and so major crime is also down 25 per cent so, overall, it’s a great thing for Jamaica,” the minister said.