The Editor, Sir:
Please allow me to address the minister of national security, the commissioner of police and the legislators of this country. Despite the fact that an abundance of changes and renewed policies have been made within the security ministry, crime continues to rise incessantly. This augurs that the academic approach to crimefighting in itself will not work to alleviate or even mitigate the effects of crime.
Crime is present, not in the society, but in the minds of the perpetrators. It is possible to pass laws that place limits on people's behaviour, but legislation cannot reform human nature. Laws cannot change what is in people's hearts and minds. Present and even future crimefighting strategies will not work unless there is a conscious effort to attack the conscience of the wrongdoers and, at the same time, restoring the morals and values that have decayed over time. Hence, please consider the following suggestions.
Need to pray
First. We need to become a praying society. There is an ostensible difference in the attitude and behaviour of individuals who make regular church attendance a priority and more often than not, their 'first response' is not with violence.
Second. The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) in particular has been the recipient of some devastatingly ugly negative publicity via the media. If people are to find favour in the JCF and the essence of a good relationship be restored, the JCF will need to use the same media to its advantage by embarking upon a massive advertising campaign, highlighting the positives and the 'goods' of the force.
More important though, trained officers are not needed behind desks and carrying out clerical duties. Civilians can be employed to do that. The officers should be deployed, where every community in Jamaica can be the recipient of quality policing 24 hours of the day. Section 13 of the Constabulary Force Act states " ... the duties of the police shall be to keep watch by day and night, to preserve the peace, to detect crime ... "
I am, etc.,
NADIA JONES
Carron Hall PO
St Mary
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