In early 2005, I met with then-Deputy Commissioner of Police Tilford Johnson and the now-deceased Superintendent Cornelius Walker. We discussed a murder tally of 144 for the St Catherine South Police Division for 2004. We discussed strategies that could be utilised to get the murder tally back to under 100 within a five-year term.

I am a strong believer in rationality and logic. Coming back to under 100 in five years seemed possible, but not probable. If I had been asked if a year’s murder tally for my division would ever be in the 50s, I would have responded with a resounding “Never!” That answer would have been reasonable; the populations of Old Harbour and Portmore are growing steadily. There is an expectation that crime will grow in keeping with population growth.

Well, 2025 ended with the St Catherine South Police Division on a murder tally of 51. Who saw this coming? Troyville Haughton, the superintendent in charge of operations and, by extension, my unit, is much younger than I am and new to my division. When he said his intention for 2025 was to keep it 50 or below, I remember thinking, “You may be short 20-odd bodies in that calculation, Super.” So I figured that maybe it was his youth, blended with a lack of experience in this geography. I didn’t think it was possible to go under 72 homicides.

My commanding officer, Senior Superintendent Leighton Grey, also stated that 50 or below was his intention. Well, I wondered: Sir Grey, like myself, is not a young man, and he is certainly no stranger to the St Catherine South Police Division. Is there something I don’t know? I wasn’t sure, but I did not see a scientific basis for believing that this could be possible. That being said, I am a member of a paramilitary organisation, and I follow orders.

What followed was an output of work by the entire division in terms of raids, roadblocks, investigations, and intelligence gathering that are impossible to quantify. I have never worked so hard in my life. I have never seen my colleagues work so hard in my service. I have never been given resources like what I have been given and seen given to my colleagues from my section and the other mentioned departments. The success of my division is mirrored by that of virtually every division in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

What I saw was a national macro plan, blended with an area and divisional plan, executed by the men and women of the division with a lot of help from non-geographical divisions. Even the dogs from the canine unit seemed as if they were on caffeine.

Those dog handlers have one of the hardest jobs in the force. I have never seen police officers this motivated. As a cop, I welcome it; as a scientist, I need to understand it. More importantly, I need you to understand it. The result? Jamaica recorded a 41 per cent decrease in crime, bringing us to a murder tally of 673, which is a figure that we have not seen since 1994. All major crimes also decreased.

Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake has perhaps just accomplished the greatest feat of any industry in the history of independent Jamaica. Crime was our greatest problem. Murders were our deepest shame. To best understand it, let’s do a little history lesson.

I won’t go back to 1974, although that’s when the killing really started. I won’t even go back to 1994 when the MacMillan experiment and the repealing of the Suppression of Crime Act were the insanity of the day. I will just start with 2011 to 2017 when the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) experiment to arrest police officers to please overseas governments and human rights organisations resulted in 1,647 murders being committed in the calendar year 2017. This was after three years of consistent increases.

In 2023, the JCF, under the management of Commissioner General Antony Anderson, achieved an approximately seven per cent decrease in homicides over 2022’s 1,516, ending 2023 at 1,406. This was 15 per cent lower than the figure he had inherited to counter: 1,647 in 2017.

The baton was passed to Commissioner Blake, who achieved a reduction for the calendar year 2024 of 18 per cent (1,147 murders). For 2025, murders fell a whopping (approximately) 41 per cent to under 673, the lowest in 31 years.

I now believe in miracles. Scientifically, this is not predictable. There are tangible factors that contributed significantly. There is the increase in JCF membership to 14,000 from 10,000 — what it was in 2018. Then there is the introduction of overtime that brought a noticeable gain to being worked for long hours.

The reclassification exercise increased the basic pay of the police force. A new approach to promotion saw many more members being promoted and seeing the real possibility of elevation. There was also the JCF macro plan of increasing operations by at least 400 per cent.

Another factor, the new gun Bill that discourages the possession of prohibited weapons by giving mandatory sentences of 10 years and up. Additionally, the management style of Dr Blake makes the operators feel that they are not alone, but have his support and the support of his management team.

There is also a general feeling in the JCF that the investigators of INDECOM are not part of the organisation’s internationally influenced propaganda machinery and it is their intention to conduct fair investigations. The big question now is: What’s next? Can this murder containment be maintained? Can it be improved?

We are at 23 per 100,000, or just three points shy of achieving a murder rate of 20 per 100,000 — which is the Pan-American average. We are no longer the sore of the Caribbean and the Pan-American region. We, therefore, need to end with no more than 600 murders in 2026. I would normally say this is impossible, but after what was achieved in 2025 and the zeal and commitment I see in both the management and the foot soldiers of the JCF, I now believe that anything is possible.

I will close by simply congratulating Commissioner Blake and his management team in all portfolios and areas on this momentous achievement. I congratulate the Jamaica Defence Force on their unwavering commitment to protecting Jamaica. I would also like to recognise the brave civilians who put their lives on the line, doing their part to assist the police in this war we have been fighting.

To the foot soldiers, this is your victory too.

Enjoy it, take a bow.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com