Dear Editor,

I write with a heavy heart and profound outrage following the brazen and cowardly attack on our law enforcement officers in Five Miles, Sligoville, St Catherine, yesterday morning, Friday, October 16, 2026.

The recent brazen attack on the police in Sligoville is not just an attack on law enforcement but on the very institution of the State and all well-thinking Jamaicans.

As confirmed by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), we have lost two of our bravest. Corporal Trevoy Shaw of the Special Operations Branch was shot and killed at approximately 5:15 am while his team searched for wanted men. His colleague, Constable Devoney Rose, who sustained critical injuries and for whom the Police Federation made an urgent appeal for blood, succumbed to his injuries on October 17 at Spanish Town Hospital. Two gunmen were also fatally shot, and tragically, a 10-year-old child who was inside the house where the gunmen had barricaded themselves was shot and injured.

Two officers have lost their lives, which has impacted not just the police force but also their immediate families. Every single one of us should be totally devastated by such news. My deepest condolence to the families of the deceased and the entire JCF.

As I examine the recent crime statistics, I can see it is going in the right direction, and law enforcement agencies must be commended. But this recent incident shows how fragile those gains are, and it starkly illustrates the true, corrosive cost of crime that statistics cannot capture.

1) Crime is killing community life: This attack shows crime holds communities hostage. When criminals can barricade themselves inside a home with women and children and engage the State in a gun battle, it shows a complete breakdown of law and order. In many communities across St Catherine, fear has replaced freedom. Children can no longer play in the street; our elderly are prisoners in their homes by 6:00 pm; and the dances, sports, and church services that build community have been abandoned. When trust evaporates, criminals thrive.

2) Crime is destroying human life: Beyond the tragic loss of Corporal Shaw and Constable Rose, which is irreparable, crime leaves a legacy of trauma. Every murder leaves a family that is psychologically and economically devastated. In this case, an innocent 10-year-old girl now lies in hospital. Our children are growing up desensitised to violence, accepting as normal what should be unthinkable. We are producing a generation that has normalised deviance.

3) Crime is sabotaging national development: No nation can develop under a gun. No investor, local or foreign, invests in uncertainty. Every business pays a “crime tax” — private security, closed-circuit TV, insurance premiums, and losses from theft — which is passed on to the consumer. It cripples productivity, fuels brain drain, threatens tourism, and diverts billions that should go to education, health, and infrastructure into policing and corrections.

Policing alone cannot solve this. I call for a united response — community partnership — to end the culture of silence, meaningful opportunity creation for our at-risk youth, and swift and certain justice to ensure crime does not pay.

I stand in solidarity with the JCF. I call on all citizens, especially residents of Sligoville, to support the investigation and stand resolute against crime and violence, as Councillor Dwight Burke of the Sligoville Division urged.

May the souls of Corporal Shaw and Constable Rose rest in eternal peace.

Brian E Richards

Security executive

Brianeichards197@gmail.com