PSOJ wants Government, Opposition to align on crime

The Private Sector Organisation Of Jamaica (PSOJ) is urging the Government and Opposition to align through the Crime Monitoring and Oversight Committee (CMOC).

“We are gravely concerned by the latest statistics reported in the media that 112 persons have been reported murdered since the start of the year up to Sunday, January 23, 2022, and that this figure represents a 16 per cent increase when compared to the same period last year,” the PSOJ said a release.

It added: “The PSOJ has been resolute in its position that crime reduction requires support from all of us working together as opposed to being divisive. We also believe that there needs to be a united front from the political leaders, and we urge them to utilise the Crime Monitoring and Oversight Committee (CMOC) to work through these challenging moments. CMOC was established as an oversight body for the National Consensus on Crime to which the leadership of both the Government and Opposition were signatories. Upon being established in 2020, CMOC’s mandate was aimed at providing oversight of sustainable, crime-reduction strategies.”

The organisation called on both the Government and the Opposition to utilise consensus as a vehicle to align on contentious positions, and to demonstrate the required political maturity owed to the Jamaican citizenry. Jamaica needs a bi-partisan and unified long-term approach to defeat the gangs that are fuelling our decades-long crime epidemic.