“JAMAICA is taking decisive action against violence producers, and the results are now evident,” declared Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness as he turned the spotlight on the troubling issue of crime while making his contribution to the 2025/26 Budget Debate in Parliament on Thursday.

Holness acknowledged that there can be no real economic growth, no true inclusion, without security and admitted that for too long, violent crime has cast a shadow over Jamaica’s progress, stealing the potential of young lives and holding back the country’s full economic transformation.

“Thankfully, we can now say the tide is turning,” he said, noting that in 2024 Jamaica recorded a 19 per cent reduction in murders, following a seven per cent decline in 2023, bringing the country’s homicide rate to 40.1 per 100,000.

“While still high, we are now outperforming some regional peers — a stark contrast to 2016 when Jamaica had the highest rate in the Caribbean at 50 per 100,000. Unlike much of the region, where homicide rates are currently surging past ours, we have reversed the trend, and now other countries are studying our approach to reducing violence,” said Holness.

“The 2024 Christmas season was the safest in over 20 years, with just six murders recorded during Christmas week. Since November 2024, the country has seen a sustained decline in murders, culminating in 47 murders in February 2025 — the lowest monthly total in 25 years and a 43 per cent reduction compared to February 2024. Between February 2022 and February 2025, murders have declined by 55 per cent.

“Additionally, major crimes as a whole, including murder, shootings, rape, robbery, and break-ins, have declined by 21 per cent, reaching the lowest level since disaggregated data collection began in 1999. Jamaica is now safer than at any point in the last 20 years,” added Holness.

According to Holness, on the current trajectory Jamaica is on track to record fewer than 1,000 murders in a single year for the first time since 2003.

“We are confident that this downward trajectory will persist, as these results stem from our deliberate planning, strategic investments, and targeted efforts to dismantle organised criminal gangs.

“My Government has recognised violence as a national emergency and, as such, we have made the largest sustained investment in national security in Jamaica’s history. In 2015, before my Administration took office, capital expenditure for national security was $2.67 billion. There were times in the 1990s and the 2000s when there was no capital expenditure,” said Holness.

“By 2018, we increased it to $12.7 billion, and in 2019 we made a record $19.5-billion investment to modernise our security apparatus.

“This substantial increase in our first term was necessary to compensate for the years of underinvestment,” said Holness as he argued that his Administration has strengthened the security forces through investments in equipment, vehicles, intelligence, forensic technology, and advanced training in cybercrime, counter-trafficking, and financial intelligence.

He told the House that Jamaica’s borders are more secure than ever, due in large part to new offshore patrol vessels, helicopters, maritime patrol aircraft, and other technical equipment procured for the Jamaica Defence Force.

“They are now better equipped to interdict illicit vessels and aircraft trafficking weapons, narcotics, and people. This fiscal year we will further enhance maritime security with the addition of 24 surface interceptor vessels, strengthening the protection of our border and our blue economy,” Holness announced.

The prime minister pointed out that following a lull in crime and a dismantling of several gangs after the 2010 operation in West Kingston, the number of gangs increased from under 200 in 2010 to 350 by 2016.

“That is when my Administration decided to take decisive action. We recognised the emergency threat organised criminal enterprises and violence producers posed to specific communities and the country generally. We responded with zones of special operations (ZOSOs) and states of public emergency (SOEs) to halt the persistent spiral in murders from 2015 to 2017.

“The SOEs and ZOSOs were successful in taking back communities from gangs, displacing criminals, disrupting their operations and limiting their space and opportunity to commit crimes. This resulted in a 22 per cent reduction in murders in 2018 and a levelling off between 2019 and 2020. The success of the SOEs and the ZOSOs came with the support of the Opposition at the time, and here I must give credit to the former leader of the Opposition Dr Peter Philips, who understood their necessity and supported their extensions,” added Holness.

“We saw a 10 per cent spike in murders in 2021. This could have been prevented and lives saved if narrow political interest parading as ‘protecting rights’ did not blind the current Opposition Leader [Mark Golding] to protecting the right to life of the victims of murder by supporting extensions of the SOEs.

“Had we had the support of the Opposition in the use of SOEs, the fall in murders would have been much greater. Let me be clear, the PNP (People’s National Party) under this leader of the Opposition can take no credit for the reduction in murders. They have done everything possible to obstruct the Government,” charged Holness.

He told the House that with improved intelligence gathering, better investigative and crime-solving capabilities, and a return to more targeted and focused strategies on gangs and violence producers the police have seen the interdiction and prosecution of several gangs and gang leaders using the anti-gang legislation.

“And today, we can say that, year-to-date, murders are at their lowest level in 25 years,” said Holness

The prime minister said his Administration we will continue to invest in the security forces and support the transformation of the Jamaica Constabulary Force into a modern, professional, and technology-driven security force.

“We will continue to target gangs, which account for over 70 per cent of murders in the country. If we focus on eliminating gangs we can reduce our murder rate to below the regional average of 15 per 100,000. And I am pleased to announce… that police intelligence now estimates fewer than 100 gangs are active in Jamaica since the beginning of the year, coming from a high of 350 in 2016. Many have been dismantled, or have gone dormant – they are laying low – because they know they are being hunted relentlessly by the security forces,” said Holness.