Editorial | Tactics for hostage crises

It is not clear whether the hijacking and hostage-taking simulation conducted by the police in Portmore on Wednesday was the first of its kind. If there have been others, they haven’t been widely publicised.

The Gleaner, however, notes the suggestion by head of the St Catherine South Police Division, Romario Rankin, that businesses, especially those with high risk factors, should routinely undertake such exercises, notwithstanding the recent downward trend in crime, especially murders.

“It is an evolving environment, and what we would have planned for five years ago and change with the new era,” Mr Rankin, an assistant superintendent of police (ASP), told this newspaper. “Things keep changing, so you have to make and plan for scenarios that you might come in contact with.”

We agree with ASP Rankin, whose observations, we believe, mean not only the managers and workers of business establishments should have plans for if they become victims of hijackings or hostage-taking, but the police sharpening their skills to respond to such situations. And that includes resolving these crises as peacefully, with as little bloodshed, as possible, whether of victims or criminals.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) doesn’t routinely publish data on hijackings and hostage-taking, or similar crimes such as kidnappings/abductions. While, compared to other crimes, these numbers are low, they are not entirely infrequent.

SEVERAL REPORTED INSTANCES

There have, in recent times, been several reported instances of either hostage-taking in robberies gone bad, such as the one last December at a supermarket in Spaldings, Manchester; or of people being held for ransom, like the case in June of Gavin Myers, a businessman from Darliston, Westmoreland, who was reportedly abducted in late June. Mr Myers was released after a ransom was said to have been paid.

And there is the outstanding case of Lorna Robertson, who was abducted near her home earlier in July. She hasn’t been heard from since.

With respect to immediately obtainable data on these categories of crime, what is available covers only kidnapping, published by the economic data website GlobalEconomy.com, and was current only up to 2017 when the kidnap rate was 0.4 per 100,000 population.

However, citing the US State Department, the travel insurance company, AIG Travel, claimed in a report this year that kidnappings/abductions, whether by sophisticated gangs or opportunistic criminals, were among Jamaica’s most under-reported crimes.

As relatively few as they may be, when hijackings, hostage-taking or kidnappings/abductions occur, they are not only chilling, they leave long-lasting psychological scars.

It is perhaps no coincidence that this week’s simulation took place not far from where, in 2023, the police and security guards were in a gunfight with criminals who held -up an armoured van transporting cash to a bank. That was among a series of robberies of money couriers over a short period.

BETTER PLACED

Compared to years ago, there is little doubt that the police are better placed to take on criminals in hijackings and hostage-taking scenarios. The JCF now has, by most reports, a highly trained and well-equipped Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team.

However, given the sharp rise in police killings so far this year (201 up to August 15, over 120 more than for the same period in 2024), the concern is likely to be for which tactic the team prioritises forceful action or negotiations.

In the face of criticism of the spiral in police homicides, the constabulary has insisted that its members act only in self-defence, so there would be no fatal shootings if criminals didn’t point guns at the police.

Simulations like the one in Portmore this week improve the SWAT team’s range of tactical skills, not least, we expect, its capacity to negotiate and de-escalate crises.

Hopefully, apart from new training, institutional memory of this approach still resides in the JCF. There was, for example, a master class in de-escalation and the talking-down of criminals in a September 2019 hostage incident on Molynes Road in St Andrew.

Criminals went to rob a lottery sales establishment. The police arrived during the heist. The robbers held workers and others hostages. A police negotiator calmly talked them into peaceful surrender.