'Crime plan slowly breaking'

OPPOSITION LEADER Andrew Holness has expressed concerns about the handling of the national security portfolio.

In an interview with The Gleaner this week, Holness said, "I am very concerned about where our national security plan is going.

"Deep down, I still have a suspicion and a concern that the plan we left in place, which would have seen a more balanced approach to crime fighting ... is slowly breaking," the opposition leader said.

Holness said the announcement by National Security Minister Peter Bunting that there would be a review of the Independent Commission of Investigations was an example of a breakdown in the crime-fighting plan.

He further stated that "the way in which the police have gone about their duties in inner-city communities and the spike in police killings, all of that places what we had created in the last four years under threat".

Bunting said in the House of Representatives on Tuesday that 56 civilians have been killed by the police in the first three months of this year. The minister said the figure was the same as the corresponding period last year and significantly less than the corresponding period for 2010.

Holness has insisted that the Government did not appear to have a handle on crime, and has suggested a link between cops ignoring the use-of-force policy and government policy.

- Daraine Luton