Dear Editor,

Crime in Jamaica forces hard choices and hard language often follows.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness captured the national frustration when he warned violent criminals to “prepare to meet your maker” if they confront the security forces. The statement resonated with a public weary of funerals. But language from the highest office matters because it sets the tone for how the State responds to violence.

The police do not have an easy job. They enter communities where high-powered rifles outgun standard service weapons. They face ambushes, extortion networks that fund better intelligence than the State, and a court backlog that means a man charged today may not see trial until 2030. In that environment, hesitation can be fatal. When Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) teams report “justified killings” of armed suspects, those realities cannot be ignored. Officers are human, and they want to make it home.

Yet that same public which supports the police also fears what comes next. A pattern of fatal encounters, even when legally justified, has led many to say the police are now acting as judge, jury, and executioner.

Independent Commission of Investigations’ (Indecom) caseload remains heavy, body-worn cameras are still not universal, and conflicting eyewitness accounts often surface after shootings.

Once the perception takes hold that verdicts are delivered on the street, the moral authority of the State begins to erode. Policing without legitimacy is just force, and force alone has never produced lasting peace here.

The prime minister’s warning and the JCF’s challenges point to the same gap — prevention. We have asked the police to be social worker, mediator, and emergency responder in communities where the rest of government went missing years ago. No tactical unit can replace 15 years of school, a first job at 18, or swift justice in court. If the only time the State shows up is with a rifle, then “prepare to meet your maker” stops sounding like deterrence and starts sounding like policy.

So what does a serious State response look like?

1) A properly equipped and protected police force — including ballistic gear, armoured vehicles, real-time intelligence, and psychological support. We cannot send them to war and then debate whether they have the tools to survive it.

2) Visible and swift accountability — This involves Mandatory body cameras with penalties for non-use, Indecom reports tabled in Parliament within 60 days, and trials for police and civilians alike concluded in under 18 months. Justice delayed teaches everyone that the street is faster.

3) Well-funded prevention strategies that match the spend on intervention — Every state of emergency (SOE) dollar should be matched by a dollar for HEART/NSTA Trust expansion, school safety officers, and community courts run by justices of the peace. Arrest the shooter, but also close the recruitment pipeline that made him.

Jamaicans are not asking the Government to choose between officer safety and human rights. We are demanding both. We can back the JCF while insisting that “justified” be proven, not proclaimed. We can endorse tough talk from the prime minister while reminding the State that its first duty is to prevent the confrontation, not just win it.

If “prepare to meet your maker” is the whole strategy we will keep meeting at gravesides. The State must show up before the gunfight — with jobs, with justice, with presence — so that fewer young men and fewer officers meet their maker before their graves.

Brian E Richards

Security executive