Jamaica’s Police force is claiming some success in its bid to reduce the country’s alarming murder toll.

While the murder rate in Jamaica remains among the highest in the world, this year has seen a reduction in the overall number of homicides, compared to 2005.

Police records show that 1,523 people died violently in Jamaica last year.

Early this year, the leadership of the country’s Police force announced its intention to intensify its fight against crime.

The programme involved the implementation of several measures including hot spot policing, a strategy in which large numbers of security personnel are placed in volatile areas.

Crime stats

The latest crime figures show that 1216 people had been killed across the country.

This was 307, or nearly a quarter below the number killed in the same period last year.

However 136 murders last month made November the bloodiest month since the start of last year.

This was 14 more than the 122 killings recorded in November the year before.

April was the only other month in which the number of murders exceeded the number for the same month in 2005.

A senior official of the police high command is citing improved community support as a major factor towards some of the successes of Jamaica’s crime fighters.

Deputy Commissioner in charge of Intelligence, Charles Scarlot, says more reliable tips along with improved investigate strategies are making a positive impact on the crime fighting efforts of the security forces.

“We have been getting greater community support in terms of information around crime and criminal activities.”

“That has led to a situation where we are able to evaluate more effectively, the information we have with improved policing tactics and investigative methods”, he told BBC Caribbean.

This has also resulted in criminals being put behind bars.

“We have been able to present better prepared cases and as a result we have been able to secure convictions, particularly in a number of high profile cases.”

Deputy Commissioner Scarlot is confident that the reduction in crime will continue next year.

A defeat for President Bush in the US Supreme Court is being regarded as welcome news for the Caribbean.

The Court ruled that non-American citizens who are legal residents in the United States cannot face mandatory deportation orders, if they’re found guilty of a single case of drugs possession.

More than 5,000 Caribbean nationals were deported from the US over the past year alone.

Jayashri Srikantiah the Director of the Immigration Rights Clinic at Stanford University in California says that the Bush Administration had taken an unduly punitive stance on the drugs issue:

Harsh

“Each of the people who are facing immigration consequences have already served their time or whatever punishment for their crime.

We have to recognise that drug possession convictions happen in a wide range of circumstances.”

She told BBC Caribbean that, “because of the nature of drug possession and the nature of drug use, and the fact in many cases it’s a disease, the immigration consequences seem particularly harsh.”

The basis of the US Supreme Court ruling was that while drug possession may be a felony in the State it’s committed in, it’s only a misdemeanour - a lesser offence - in most cases under Federal law.

Many Caribbean countries have challenged US, and other countries’ policies of deporting convicted criminals with ties to the region, back to the Caribbean, especially in cases where they’ve spent most of their lives abroad.

Some countries say they are struggling to put in place programs to assimilate them into Caribbean society and divert them away from criminal activities.

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Augusto Pinochet’s death closes an era in Chile but leaves a nation still split over the ex-dictator’s legacy.
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(more…)

Leaders of South America’s twelve nations met late last week in Cochabamba, Bolivia for the 2nd South American Summit. On Saturday, at the close of the meeting, they signed the Cochabamba Declaration, which they called the “cornerstone of the South American process integration” and which calls for a new model of integration for the 21st century. (more…)