MONTEGO BAY, St James — Divisional commander for the St James Police Division, Senior Superintendent Eron Samuels is theorising that the stress of life after Hurricane Melissa may be fuelling an increase in conflicts, some of which end in fatalities.

“We are seeing an uptick in interpersonal incidents. I don’t know, maybe it’s stemming from after Melissa with so many of our hotels being closed down; there is a lot more tension in the air,” the senior cop told the monthly regular meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation on Thursday.

He said he and his team are doing what they can to help residents earn an income.

“We are trying our best to assist, as best as possible, persons who want to put on events. We just want them to go through the proper channels — through the municipal corporation, through us — so that we can properly police the events and allow them to earn and gain from these events,” he posited as a solution.

With St James recording 26 murders since the start of the year, Samuels on Thursday again shone the spotlight on the impact of interpersonal conflicts, noting that there is now a “slight uptick in incidents right across [the board]”.

According to official figures from the police, St James recorded 22 murders in the same period in 2025, and Samuels said domestic disputes are a major contributing factor.

“When we see the breakdown we are currently at 11 interpersonal incidents, we have eight gang-related murders, and seven criminal,” Samuels said.

As part of his analysis he also referenced femicide, in particular last month’s murder of Cora Thompson as she sat outside the doors of Montego Bay New Testament Church of God. Two other women have been murdered since then, Melissa Kerry Samnath of Queens, New York, and a soup vendor who was killed on Saturday, shot before her three daughters in the People’s Arcade.

“What we are recognising as well is that a large number of women are being targeted in these incidents, land disputes are featured among a couple of them, domestic violence. It shows the need for a community-based approach in dealing with crime now,” Samuels said.

He explained that interpersonal issues are sometimes linked to gang-related incidents as individuals utilise gangsters to fight their battles. The divisional commander offered suggestions on how interpersonal conflicts may be curbed. He suggested the legal fraternity may have a role to play.

“We can’t predict these ones but if we have the community coming to help us to identify where there are major issues — and especially persons in the legal fraternity who may come across, in their daily operations, land disputes that can identify where there are issues — and can help us to intervene early, I believe this can help to stem some of the issues that we face,” he said.

Despite the challenges, Samuels pointed to the gains made in crime fighting in the parish.

“The last several years, gang-related murders was the issue of the day for St James. As much as we don’t want to see an uptick, we are in a better position because these interpersonal murders tend to have a lower rate of reprisals,” he said.

“Your murder rate gets out of whack when you have a lot of reprisals, and so we are really grateful that we are seeing a decline in gang-related murders. But the domestic incidents are really taking a toll on us. It’s really one of those things that if we cauterise that, we’ll be in good stead,” he added.

Overall, Samuels remains pleased with his team’s policing efforts.

“Going into the end of the first half of the year I think we are still in good stead to make some major gains. The city, in and of itself, is safe; the incidents that we are seeing are very peculiar to the particular cases,” he noted.