Polack Post: Jamaica Still Not Safe
By Peter Polack
Peter Polack
The recent announcement that Jamaican annual murders had fallen below 700 is a matter of looking at a glass half empty or half full. Murders are at the extreme end of criminal offences leaving behind a trail of other serious crimes like rape, robbery and assault for which the government has been noticeably quiet, probably because there can be no faux happy press release.
The elephant in the room is that result has been the entire result of efforts by operational police in the gritty, tragic and deadly business of foiling assassins and gang warfare, some of whom have died in the line of duty leaving families behind. Let us hope a government press release on their care is forthcoming.
It has not been the efforts of politicians.
The prime minister’s promise that people can sleep with open windows has not been forgotten but we are very far from achieving that goal, however wishful, however deceptive that statement.
It has been an good effort so far by the under resourced police but what about the host of crimes that affect daily living and future survival.
Will 2026 bring a new crop of death and can politicians promise to keep the murder rate down.
Can politicians promise to bring other crime rates down?
They can claim credit next Christmas if they can accomplish that.
The Jamaican police are at the apex of their performance to become the top regional crime fighters but they can only do so much at the one end of the law enforcement conundrum, the other end being the prevention of crime before it starts. The police are occupied with the failure of the government to prevent crime namely, investigation, arrest, court and imprisonment.
Before any of that expensive and heavy resource consumption, is the need to prevent crime by employment, national service, missing fathers and social outreach. Hard to do with multi billion dollar loans to the private sector.
Multiple reports and pronouncements by the experts in the field seem to agree that diverting the youth and disenfranchised from crime, by any means necessary must be the way forward.
An ounce of prevention and all that.
In this, Minister Dana Dixon will have to be the new leader for change especially with upgraded early childhood development. It may be the new model to actually listen to the pleas of her opposite number Damion Crawford and give priority where it is due.
Join hands for the youth of today to prevent the social mistakes of tomorrow.
Notes
https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/12/31/murders-fall-700-first-time-31-years-chang
https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/08/31/pm-holness-reiterates-jcans-will-sleep-windows-doors-open
Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer from the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88.
His views are his own.
