MONTEGO BAY, St James — The Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) current social media campaign has had the tongues of many wagging, while others howl in laughter.

However, statistics provided to the Jamaica Observer by the constabulary’s Senior Communications Strategist Dennis Brooks indicate that the campaign has been much more than comic relief.

Since the start of 2022, the JCF has been utilising its social media platforms to send strong, yet comedic messages, urging people to provide anonymous tips and reports to Crime Stop Jamaica. Brooks explained that through those efforts, Crime Stop has seen an impressive 97 per cent increase in reports since the start of the social media campaign.

According to the statistics provided, Crime Stop received 193 tips in 2021 and saw a jump to 381 tips in 2022. The subsequent arrests and seizures made as a result of those reports also “highlight the effectiveness of the programme in taking actionable steps to mitigate crime”, Brooks pointed out.

“The year-to-date statistics of Crime Stop Jamaica reveal a notable increase in the number of tips received in 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, indicating a heightened level of community engagement and willingness to report a crime,” Brooks said.

“The majority of tips revolved around illegal firearms and ammunition, gunmen, wanted persons, lottery scamming, and drugs, with respective counts being 128, 97, 37, 23, and 20,” he added.

A recent post by the JCF, with the caption “Listen, it’s too hot for foolishness. Report guns, gangs, and wanted men to @crimestopjamaica and use the money to invest in an air-conditioning unit” garnered over 1,200 likes and 118 comments. It is one example of the messaging that the constabulary force has been using in the campaign.

While there have been some negative comments surrounding the constabulary’s use of witty and trendy content to encourage the reporting of illegal guns, gangs, and gunmen, Brooks told the Sunday Observer that “the posts have been well-received”.

“There have been criticisms of some of them. Not everyone appreciates everything to the same degree. However, the truth is that not all messages are targeted at the same demographics, so it’s natural that they won’t resonate with everyone,” the senior communications strategist explained.

He continued, “For us, a key measure of success has been the meteoric increase in reporting to such sources as Crime Stop’s 311 line. The empirical data shows that since the implementation of our team’s strategy, more people are feeling empowered to call 311, 811, 119 and even just send us DMs that serve as leads in important investigations.”

In responding to the Sunday Observer‘s queries regarding the rationale behind the social media campaign, Brooks stated that the JFC’s Corporate Communications Unit (CCU) along with Commissioner of Police, Major General Antony Anderson recognised a need to transform the organisation’s communication efforts.

“The current social media campaign is based on a number of key goals and objectives that our team – led ultimately by the Commissioner of Police – determined some time ago. As such, it was important for us to come up with a strategy to get us there. So because of that, everything that we do is strategic and geared towards achieving those ends. Within the JCF, the Constabulary Communications Unit is a key player in the broader modernisation and transformation that is taking place. Transformation in the way we communicate with our public is crucial,” said Brooks.

The efforts to transform how the constabulary force communicates also highlighted the need to address what he described as a “trust deficit”, Brooks further told the Sunday Observer. This, he said, has seen the JCF working assiduously to break down a barrier between the police and civilians.

However, according to Brooks, the campaign is a drop in the bucket in the JCF’s plan to build trust and partnerships with citizens.

“We often speak about a trust deficit that exists in the relationship between the police and the citizenry. However, from what we have seen is that through this campaign and other campaigns, we are rapidly closing that deficit. The numbers don’t lie. The experiences and the feedback point to significant improvements in the relationships of trust. It’s not just the fun posts, but also the real stories that we have been able to share on social media that have humanised the police and built trust. But there is far more work for us to do in building trust,” he said.

Responding to another question posed by the Sunday Observer regarding the JCF’s intention to continue on its current wave of communication, Brooks pointed out that there are plans to evolve and develop new strategies to get the JCF’s messaging across.

“The decisions we have taken have definitely borne fruit. They have allowed us to connect with new people in new ways. And yet, there is so much more to do. There is more growth and engagement to pursue, and the strategies that have got us this far are not necessarily the ones that are going to be the ones that will take us to the next level. So it is important for us to continue along this trajectory,” Brooks said.

“When you look at the nature of the tips, it coincides with the content of the campaign. ‘Guns, Gunmen and Gangs’ was our theme and recurring message. What did they report most? Guns, gunmen, and gangs. We were pushing for people to report scammers. What did they report? Scammers,” Brooks told the Sunday Observer.