In an election year one can be pardoned for cutting politicians some slack to brag about the achievements they believe can bring them votes and ultimately victory at the polls.

We in this space contend, however, that a serious matter like crime should not receive politically partisan treatment at any point, be it election time or not. For, in the very moment that one is beating one’s chest, Jamaicans could be losing their lives.

But for the fact that it is election time, we would not have expected the following bit of braggadocio from Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness as he spoke Saturday night at Manchester Chamber of Commerce’s awards banquet.

“In murders, we saw a decline by nine per cent in 2023. People scoffed at it. In 2024, we saw a decline of 19 per cent and some people said, ‘Well, maybe this is just a flash in the pan,’ and year-to-date we are seeing a 35 per cent decline and now I am seeing everybody want to come and take credit for it.”

Progress in the fight against crime belongs to all long-suffering Jamaicans who have continued to sacrifice to bring the crime monster under control. The yearly increase in budgetary expenditure that could go to education or health is evidence of that sacrifice.

Therefore, credit is owed to all Jamaicans for any reduction in murders, shootings, rapes, robberies, praedial larceny, and the like. The fight against crime is a national, not a partisan imperative.

We have advanced the argument ad nauseam here that the two major political parties should agree to remove crime from the partisan arena and jointly mobilise their supporters in one Jamaican endeavour to take the fight to the gunmen, the people who shield them, and those who provide them with weapons.

If we needed any further proof of how not to treat achievements on the crime front we saw it in the report in our Sunday edition titled ‘Survey finds perception of crime increase despite reported declines’.

The important Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) 2023 Jamaica National Crime Victimisation Survey Report released on Friday tells us that, despite police statistics showing that Jamaica has seen a reduction in major crimes, a majority of Jamaicans see it otherwise.

“A total of 88.6 per cent of respondents perceived an increase in crime in Jamaica when comparing 2022 to 2023. This represents a growing perception of a rise in criminal activities in Jamaica, as 76.5 per cent of respondents had the perception that crime increased when comparing 2018 to 2019,” the report showed.

“Additionally, 67.8 per cent of respondents perceived that crime increased in their parish in 2023, up from 56.2 per cent who perceived an increase in crime in 2019. Towns and cities were also perceived to have an increase in crime by 47.8 per cent of respondents, an uptick from the 37.9 per cent who perceived an increase in crime in 2019.”

This means that figures being released by the police force are not being accepted by the populace, and suggests that there is need for the country to be more engaged in the fight against crime. It is certainly not possible to achieve this with a partisan agenda.

We do not argue against any Administration using improvements in reducing crime as encouragement and even a thing of pride. However, suggesting that the credit is theirs alone shows a lack of understanding about the true nature of crime.