EDITORIAL - What's Mr Bunting's policy?

THERE ARE legitimate fears that Jamaica's criminals are regaining the confidence they appeared to have lost in the post-Tivoli period and are reasserting themselves. It is showing in the homicide figures.

According to figures available to this newspaper, 142 people were murdered in the first 42 days of 2012. This is a jump of nearly 18 per cent on the comparative period last year.

But it is not only the raw numbers that are of concern. Rather, it is the brazenness with which the gangsters are again operating. It matters little who is the intended victim or where they are attacked.

In that regard, we have a sense of the peak of 2009, when there were 1,682 reported murders in Jamaica and the homicide rate reached around 65 per 100,000, near the top of the rankings in the world.

Making headway

After the security forces went into Tivoli Gardens in the first quarter of 2010 and routed the militia of drug lord and enforcer Christopher Coke, Jamaicans might have felt that they were making headway against the criminals. Murders declined by nearly 40 per cent and other major crimes also fell. Now, the trend, it appears, could be reversed.

If the current trajectory in terms of statistics and behaviour of criminals continue, Jamaica risks a return to the number of homicides of three years ago.

The signs are most ominous in St Catherine, especially in the urban sections of the parish, including its capital, Spanish Town, where the Clansman and One Order gangs operate with seeming impunity.

The St Catherine North Police division, which covers most of these urban communities, has already recorded 25 murders and the constabulary's high command has seen fit to warn its members in that area to be alert to attacks of members of the security forces. On the basis of what subsequently transpired, it seems that the leadership of the police force operated with credible intelligence.

The police clearly appreciate the danger. "We are facing some trying times and all of us will have to bond together with our effort," said Assistant Commissioner of Police Ealan Powell, who heads the Criminal Investigation Branch.

Not very clear

What, however, is not clear is how an understanding of the dangers translates into crime-fighting policy, and the strategy and tactics for the execution of the policy - if one exists.

On this score, the public needs to hear from the new national security minister, Mr Peter Bunting, who is yet to articulate a coherent policy for dealing with the immediate problems and Jamaica's longer-term security concerns. Maybe it is that Mr Bunting is satisfied with the policies of the previous Jamaica Labour Party government and his predecessor, Mr Dwight Nelson, in which case, he should say so.

The public needs to be assured, too, by the police chief, Mr Owen Ellington, that the constabulary has more than Mr Powell's appreciation of the dangers, but is in command of thoughtful and effective strategies and tactics to turn back the tide. What, broadly, are these?

It would also be useful to hear from Mr Ellington whether a state of emergency, effectively applied in Kingston during the Coke episode - but prematurely abandoned - might not be worthwhile in St Catherine.

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