Forty per cent of Jamaicans have a favourable opinion of the new minister of national security, Colonel Trevor MacMillan.

According to the latest Gleaner-Bill Johnson poll, only 21 per cent of the public haVE an unfavourable opinion of the minister who is leading the fight against spiralling crime and violence in the country.

The poll was conducted on May 31 and June 1 in 84 communities with 1,008 respondents. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent.

Started may 12

Colonel MacMillan was ushered into the post of security minister on May 12 by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, replacing Derrick Smith, who held the portfolio for eight months. Smith had been out of office for a number of weeks due to illness.

Since his appointment, Mac-Millan has had to deal with the continuance of the crime rate with more than 190 persons killed in the month of May, pushing the number of Jamaicans killed since the start of the year to more than 700.