The recent flare-up of gang violence in Kingston Central and West Kingston amid active SOEs is a testament that SOEs do not work. Those who have served in the JCF and the JDF know that once criminals become aware of the various checkpoints in an SOE zone, it’s business as usual because all they have to do is move the guns and avoid the checkpoints.
And law enforcement officers need to understand that gangsterism in today’s Jamaica is not centralized to a specific area as in the past. Instead, it has morphed into a network with tenacles stretching all over Jamaica. So, often a hot criminal in West Kingston will migrate to another parish where his gang is affiliated. Then, he would stay put or keep moving around until things cooled off. Then, he may or may not return to West Kingston.
It must be embarrassing and, perhaps, dishearting for Police Commissioner, Major General Antony Anderson, to announce that the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the JDF are taking steps to respond to a recent flare-up in violence in the West Kingston and Kingston Central communities where there are active SOEs. These people have sworn by SOE, and it flies into their faces.
The surge in violence in the Kingston Central and Kingston West Police divisions resulted in 10 people getting shot, four fatally, on the weekend.
And gang conflict is reportedly the leading cause of the surge in violence.
Major General Anderson said some gang leaders are operating from overseas.
He also said the joint security team is considering deploying more curfews.
Unlike SOEs, a curfew is an unannounced operation that is a better crime-fitting tool with a decent success rate, that the JCF seldom uses. It maintains the element of surprise and it has a shock value.
Anderson said the JCF and the Jamaica Defence Force would continue to conduct deliberate searches of areas used by gangs.