ST JAMES, Jamaica — The police in St James are lauding the cooperation of citizens which they say has been instrumental in the downward trend in crime that has been happening since last year.

Speaking at the monthly council meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation, Superintendent Mercedes Currie made the acknowledgement on behalf of the police division.

“Let me just express to the citizens of St James the gratitude of the St James police for the support that we have received, especially since the beginning of this calendar year,” she said.

“As a result of the support that we have received, we have seen a downward trend in the crime in this division,” she added.

She used the opportunity to provide some details and statistics about the movements in crime in the parish up to May 8 in the parish.

“As of today’s date, 19 murders have been reported across the parish of St James as compared to 55 for the same period last year,” she declared to the gathering.

She explained that there have been some other notable decreases in other major crimes within the parish as well.

“There have been 24 shootings so far compared to 50 for the same period as of today’s date,” she said.

However, she pointed out that they are dealing with an uptick in the area of acquisition crimes despite the good results coming in for the other major crimes.

“There have been 14 robberies compared to nine for the same period last year; aggravated assaults, there have been seven reported which is a very marginal increase of six for the same period last year,” she said.

“There have been 10 reports of break-ins compared to 13 for the same period last year. There were two reports of larceny and this time last year, we had one,” she stated.

However, she highlighted that overall the parish had seen a marked improvement as it relates to major crimes for the first four months of the year.

“This brings us to a total of 86 major crimes compared to 153 for the same period last year. So, as a police division, we have been doing well,” she said.

She highlighted that this was more than the work of the police and again sought to laud citizens and other stakeholders who have played a part in this regard.

“We cannot say that it has only been policing and we have often said that policing is so important that it cannot be left to the police alone and therefore the contributions made by the citizens of St James has allowed us to see a reduction in the committal of crimes across this division,” she stated.

She also added that “we have forged partnerships, we have been getting significant support from the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and as I said, the information coming in from the citizens of St James have really, really helped us significantly”.

As it relates to the recently announced Operation Storm 2, she said that they have reaped some early success with that particular initiative.

“Of significance in our results is that on the 2nd of May, in the Cambridge police area, we had a recovery of a firearm,” she disclosed.

“It’s not just an ordinary recovery, some amount of operation had to be done and we recovered that firearm in the rural part of Cambridge and a large stash of ammunition,” she revealed.

The hope, she said, is that these and other works will lead to a crucial goal of the police for the residents and visitors to the parish.

“We continue, we are relentless because our intention is to hopefully see at least one zero month as far as crime is concerned in this parish of St James,” she declared to the gathering.