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Jamaica will record under 1,000 murders this year, says PM

Published:Tuesday | April 29, 2025 | 5:28 PM
Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness speaking at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of Jamaica Packaging Industries and the opening of a new factory by the company along Spanish Town Road in Kingston on Tuesday, April 29.
Rudolph Brown
Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness speaking at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of Jamaica Packaging Industries and the opening of a new factory by the company along Spanish Town Road in Kingston on Tuesday, April 29.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness says Jamaica will record under 1,000 murders this calendar year.

The last time Jamaica recorded fewer than 1,000 murders in a calendar year was 2003, when 976 people were killed, police data shows.

Between January 1 and April 26 this year, the police recorded 225 murders, a 36 per cent decline or 130 fewer than the corresponding period last year, the data revealed.

“We will go below 1,000 murders [for] the first time in almost 30 years,” Holness said as he opened Jamaica Packaging Industries Limited’s new $2 billion state-of-the-art factory in Kingston on Tuesday.

This, he said, will send a signal to business operators and the rest of the world that Jamaica is serious about making the island a destination for people to come and visit and for businesses to come and operate.

- Livern Barrett

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