Editorial | Curfew again!

Curfews, imposed on and off, have become a common feature of policing strategy in Jamaica. Increasingly, announcements advising of curfews being staged in specific areas come after a surge in violent crimes, including murder. As we understand it, curfews are imposed for containment purpose. At the time of writing, curfews were announced simultaneously in sections of Clarendon, Olympic Gardens and Admiral Town in Kingston.

The police have stated that without intervention they anticipate that the violence will increase in the communities and even spread to other areas. A curfew has the effect of keeping everyone, including criminals, at home, say for 48 hours. During that period, the opportunities to commit crime and/or attack rival gangs are limited. The eerily quiet streets somehow feel safer. Taken at face value, the curfew seems like a general deterrence to crime and violence.

At the end of the month, the police can declare with some satisfaction that zero crime was recorded in that particular space for that period. And statistics ought to be a good way to tell whether a measure is working. On closer examination, however, such statistics may not tell a true story about the effect on public safety. The test is whether the community is safer after the curfew enforcement. For example, do residents of Admiral Town feel safer to move around or is their community once again a place where a variety of criminal acts are committed at the other end of a gun? Is it that a person with intent to commit a crime simply waits out the curfew and once lifted, he returns to his murderous activities? Then the picture that emerges is one in which the short-term gains from curfews tend to evaporate in the long run.

BEFUDDLES THE MIND

It befuddles the mind that during those critical 48 hours of a curfew, the police are not able to accomplish more in these heightened crime areas. For instance, does the curfew provide the best opportunity for the police to search premises and recover guns and ammunition? From a historical perspective there is evidence that curfews and raids can reap success. In 2005, the JCF reported 22 curfews and 14,000 raids which resulted in the confiscation of 436 illegal firearms and some 13,000 offensive weapons.

There is no need for the police to get permission to conduct raids for this is considered normal policing. With the aid of modern technology, much can be accomplished in these operations.

It is important to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of crime-fighting strategies and make adjustments if necessary. While we do not expect the police to share all of its data and analysis with the public, we expect that they are assessing the effectiveness of curfews as a crime deterrent. Is the increased use of curfews any indication that data analysis confirms that it is working to make the streets safer?

If the data says otherwise, why would there be this seeming reliance on curfews in the most violent areas?

Despite all the other issues, economic and social, that confront the nation, crime prevention still remains at the top of the agenda. As confidence in the ability of the JCF to keep the country safe wanes, citizens continue to assess their own vulnerabilities to identify weak spots and decide what moves they can make to improve their situation. It is an expensive proposition to get battle ready.

In the face of failure of the Government to develop new solutions to the ongoing menace to peace and safety, frustration has reached boiling point.