Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared a State of Public Emergency (SOE) in two sections of the island which took effect after midnight.
The divisions include St. James, Hanover, and Westmoreland, Kingston & St. Andrew, St. Catherine, Clarendon, and St. Ann.
While speaking at this morning’s press briefing held at the Office of the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Holness outlined that it was necessary to impose SOEs in the aforementioned policing divisions due to high levels of criminal activities such as murders, extortions, and scamming.
He also stated that with the SOE imposition, criminal elements that often pose a threat in these divisions will be curbed.
“The Government, after careful consideration, and on the advice of the Security Chiefs decided to notify the Governor-General that it was necessary and indeed appropriate to declare States of Public Emergency in the areas described above.
While we have had reasonable success in controlling the number of murders leading up to and during the Christmas season, the threat levels for ongoing gang conflicts, contract killings, organized robberies of businesses, hijacking of goods in transit, and various confidence scams, that lead ultimately to the loss of lives, spreading of fear and depriving entire communities of freedom to pursue their businesses and happiness, that threat level remains elevated and extensive in scale,” Prime Minister Holness explained.
“We are in the festive season and thus require the deployment of even greater resources and therefore the Government has to maximize and use all lawful means to multiply and project its security resources not only to investigate and interdict after the loss of lives but to increase presence to deter criminals and to conduct various operations to preempt them,” he added.
Commissioner of Police, Major General Antony Anderson also compounded Prime Minister Holness’ stance by noting that during the periods of SOEs, criminal elements were minimized however after the SOEs ended, the criminal elements doubled.
As such, Commissioner Anderson outlined that the SOE imposition is needed to quell the rapid increase in criminal elements found in these divisions.
