KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Campaign Chairman, Dr Christopher Tufton, has dismissed recent criticism from the People’s National Party (PNP), insisting the JLP Government’s crime-fighting strategy is yielding real results.

Tufton was responding to PNP spokesperson on national security, Peter Bunting, who at his party’s manifesto launch accused the Government of promoting a “warrior mentality” in policing, contrasting it with the PNP’s “guardian mentality”, which he said better protects citizens’ human rights.

Speaking during a tour of Clarendon North West with JLP candidate Warren Newby, Tufton pointed to a 43 per cent decline in murders nationally since the start of the year, with Clarendon also reaping success.

“What dawned on me in this parish is the way the Jamaica Labour Party crime plan has effectively brought crime down in the parish of Clarendon,” Tufton said, adding, “To date, murders are down some 55 per cent.”

Tuftan noted that before the gains in Clarendon this year, the parish was plagued by violent crimes, including mass shootings, robberies and attacks on women and children.

“What we have done as a party is to apply intelligence gathering, put more police on the ground and have been able to control and reduce crime by well over 50 per cent year-to-date, never before has that happened,” he explained.

He accused the PNP of relying on rhetoric and “divine intervention” rather than practical solutions, arguing that the JLP has taken concrete steps to make communities safer.

“The difference is that they talk, and in some instances, depending on divine intervention without action, while we act. Our plan is to ensure that we act and we act where it is important to deal with the deviance out there so that law-abiding citizens can walk around freely and feel safer in their communities,” Tufton argued.

He emphasised that reducing crime has also strengthened communities.

“It allows businesses to remain open later at nights. It allows people to go about their business without living in fear. It allows more investments to come into the community and the parish. And that is what Clarendon as a parish has benefited from, which is attributed to the effectiveness of our strategy,” Tufton said.