Millions to fight crime - US$20 million IDB loan for new initiatives

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson (right) with Robert Bellefeuille, a representative of the Inter-American Development Bank, at the signing of a US$20.6-million loan at Jamaica House yesterday. - Rudolph Brown

GOVERNMENT IS pumping big money into its fight against crime with a US$20.6 million loan agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), aimed at funding new anti-crime initiatives.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and Robert Bellefeuille, a representative of IDB, signed the agreement at Jamaica House yesterday.

"The incidence of violence in Jamaica is an issue of serious concern for all Jamaica. Much of the violence is concentrated in the Kingston Metropolitan Area," the Prime Minister noted.

Crime and violence, according to an August poll commissioned by The Gleaner, is the number one problem facing Jamaica at this time. Close to 36 per cent of the 1,000 persons interviewed between August 14 and 28 across the island's 14 parishes identified crime as a major problem. "It is a view that is very widely held by persons from all the various demographic segments," said pollster Don Anderson, who led a team of researchers from Market Research Services Ltd.

The IDB money (J$922 million) will be used to fund a four-year programme aimed at preventing and reducing crime and violence, strengthening crime management capabilities and improving the judicial services. The programme will focus on the development of a national strategy for crime; improving the ability of Ministry of National Security and Justice to carry out its functions; strengthening the criminal justice system, developing a public education campaign and building community support against crime.

Signing of the agreement took place one day after The Gleaner reported that more than 3,500 murders committed over the past decade remain unsolved. According to some analysts, this exposes a specific deficiency in the crime solving capabilities of the police and a generally weakness in the judicial system.

Over the last few years, the Government has funded and implemented a number of crime-fighting programmes, with little success. The murder rate, which has averaged about 700 each year for the last five years, has been like a monkey on the back of the Patterson administration and a threat to its popularity going into the next election.

According to the Prime Minister, the loss of social trust is evident in the manner in which some citizens view key state institutions. He told journalists that as violence escalates, the efforts of the police to stem its growth has become so constrained that it appears to some that the police are unable to deal effectively with crime.

He later told a meeting organised by the People's National Party Youth Organisation at the Jamaica Conference Centre that the Government has already identified nine inner-city communities for the community support component of the programme.

These include Drews Land, Water House, Tower Hill, Denham Town, Trench Town, Fletchers Land, Hannah Town, Grants Pen and August Town.

"We have not only to strengthen the security system, we also want to strengthen the criminal justice system so that everybody and every community can believe their is justice for all," he said.

The IDB's Bellefeuille said the frequency and seriousness of crime constitute a definite obstacle to democratic governments making more difficult the prospect of human development.

"Criminality contributes to the lack of government efficiency insofar as it hampers the state's ability to perform its principal functions," stressed Mr. Bellefeuille.

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