MONTEGO BAY, St James — Though proud of the work done by his team in St James, which ends the year with a 40 per cent decrease in the number of recorded murders, divisional commander for the parish Senior Superintendent Eron Samuels is disappointed that their internal target of fewer than 50 murders was not met. He said the darkness that followed Hurricane Melissa’s temporary crippling of the power supply provided cover for hoodlums to wreak havoc.

“We feel like we accomplished a mission that we set out as a management team. Originally, we were quite modest with what we put out to the public: that we wanted to bring murders below 100. We had a much more harder target, which we kind of failed at, [through] no fault of ours,” he told the
Jamaica Observer Wednesday.

Up to Wednesday morning, the parish had recorded 58 murders. There were 125 for the corresponding period in 2024. Shootings and other major crimes are also down compared to last year but robberies continue to pose a challenge for lawmen.

“We actually wanted to bring [murders] to under 50, that was the internal target that we had set. However, with the onset of Melissa, we got a couple hits in the latter part – especially because of the lack of electricity in certain areas. Persons used the cover darkness to commit some acts,” Samuels lamented.

He is convinced the parish’s crime stats will decline further in 2026 if they follow the road map laid out by the leadership of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

“There are some strategies that came from high command as well, where we are active on the roads with our nationally coordinated roadblocks for our major operations, etc. Using those strategies along with our local strategies, I believe we can better what we are doing,” he explained.

Samuels opted not to share what the new internal target is for 2026.

“What I can say is that we are trying our best to utilise a lot more technology in what we are doing,” he told the Observer.

Part of this new push, he said, will be the deployment of drone technology.

“Whilst we have police officers moving around on foot, police officers moving around on cycles, police officers moving around in cars, we want to also have eyes in the sky,” Samuels explained.

“They are going to know that these drones are operated by the police and we are recording; so we are able to spot wanted persons, spot persons of interest, known pickpockets, known criminals and we can be a bit more proactive in ensuring that we keep citizens safe,” he added.

The senior cop also highlighted renewed stakeholder engagement, including players in the tourism sector and community engagement as part of the effort to tackle crime and violence within the parish. These measures have proven effective in the past and will be relied upon once more. So, too, will be the emphasis on preventing tit-for-tat attacks.

“What we realised is that we were getting anniversary reprisals. So what we started doing was we did more anniversary interventions,” Samuels said.

“We know we had a murder last year, we went back and spoke to the community, spoke to the family of the victim and we realised that we’re able to stave off a lot of incidents because of those interventions and interactions,” he explained.

He said there have been instances where residents have told the police their interventions made the difference.

“There was one in question where the person actually told us that they had planned to, but because of the team coming and speaking to them, they realised that it wouldn’t make sense because it wouldn’t bring back the person,” he told the Observer.

Noting that the division has been doing well in other areas, Samuels commended the men and women of his team who he said continue to go above and beyond for the cause of crime reduction.

“We have gone a little over 70-odd murders cleared up and the clear-up rate is 119 per cent. What this means is that they have cleared murders from last year as well. The police officers, I must say hats off to them in terms of their resilience over the year. The work that they have done has really pushed to give us the kind of results that we are seeing,” he explained.

“[Senior officers] are merely the persons who turn the steering wheel, lead the ship but the engine of the ship are the men and women on the ground doing the work,” Samuels added.

He also praised the Jamaica Defence Force, Specialised Operations, Area One, PSTEB and members of the private sector for the support they have provided to the JCF.

“I must really say thank you to our other partners: Rainforest, Sandals, Pier One, Wards Power Tools, the municipal corporation, Jamaica Fire Brigade. There are many, many, many, many different stakeholders who have come on-board and have helped us throughout the year,” a grateful Samuels said.