LUCEA, Hanover — Even though there was an 82 per cent increase in murders in Trelawny in 2022, head of the Area One Police Division Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifford Chambers has painted a picture of effective policing in the parish.

“Trelawny has the best clear-up rate in Area One and there are far more illegal firearms recovered in Trelawny in 2022 over 2021. So, with the increase of 14 more [murders], there’s also increasing police effort, increasing containment strategy, increasing gun recoveries, increasing arrests and so on,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

There were 31 murders recorded in Trelawny last year and 17 in 2021.

Chambers attributed this increase to criminals fleeing St James as the security forces carried out activities in the neighbouring parish, and he said the issue had been addressed by the middle of last year.

“It’s something that was effectively contained from June all the way back to the end of the year,” he said.

Trelawny is the only parish in Area One — which also includes Hanover, Westmoreland and St James — not currently under a state of public emergency (SOE).

Of the three parishes in which SOEs have been imposed, Hanover is the only one that has seen a decline in murders. The parish recorded 44 murders in 2022 in comparison to 46 in the previous year, a four per cent fall. Chambers said there were also more guns and ammunition recovered in the parish and more arrests made for major crimes.

“When we speak of major arrests, we’re talking about persons who are wanted for serious offences, robbery, murder, shooting, rape — those major crimes that give us a bad reading on the international agenda. So, Hanover is below where they were last year [2021] in all,” he explained.

Over in Westmoreland, murders inched up by eight per cent over the 130 recorded in 2021. Chambers sought to put the increase in context, saying, “the policing effort is also consistent”.

“They have more murders than the year before. However, they had more arrests and incidentally more convictions for serious crimes than the year before and also more recovery,” he argued.

He added that policing efforts, a visible police presence and the SOE have provided lawmen with a good containment strategy and results. While not providing supporting data, ACP Chambers noted that the murder figures for last December were extremely low for the parish.

Over in St James, there was a 24 per cent increase in murders from 160 in 2021 to 198 last year.

However, the first four days of 2023 appear to have made ACP Chambers optimistic. He pointed to a “major reduction” in major crimes, compared to the same period last year.

“And not only that, there have been some major recoveries as well. All of the divisions in Area One have since recovered illegal firearms and ammunition and have since made some very good arrests. We are seeing the men out there battling crime and getting some good successes,” he maintained.

ACP Chambers made it clear that the ongoing SOE is not the only policing tactic that has contributed to the reductions seen.

“This is one of the factors that has given us the results that we’re getting; no doubt about that. But, again, it’s not the only policing tactic that we were using… It provided us with the kind of legalistic latitude that we wanted, but other methods are also being used. We are targeting wanted persons in the same way we are making some very good arrests with evidence, recovering firearms and now, we are also charging persons for major offences,” he said.