Mandeville, Manchester - The police have recovered 180,000 rounds of ammunition and more than 430 guns so far this year, numbers that worry Police Commissioner Francis Forbes.
"For a little country like Jamaica that is not at war, how is it that the police is able to be recovering an average of 500 illegal guns each year?" he questioned, noting that his men have so far recovered more rifles and more submachine guns than for the same period last year.
Forbes was speaking, last Friday, at a meeting of senior cops and members of the business community from Area Three at the Golf View Hotel in Mandeville. The guns and ammunition, the top cop said, had been discovered in various locations including refrigerators, VCR casings and in barrels shipped into the island. The flow of contraband from Haiti, he said, was becoming a problem.
"We are concerned about the ease with which guns and drugs come to Jamaica from Haiti and we are doing something about it," he said. "We can't tell you everything that we do, but we are working at an international level and at a regional level to deal with the flow of guns and ammunition from Haiti, even as we deal with the flow from Colombia and other South African countries."
According to Forbes, there would be closer scrutiny of boats entering Jamaican waters, especially those from Haiti.
In a wide-ranging address, the police chief spoke of the lack of resources - including the need for additional vehicles - while urging lawmen to use their creativity to get the job done.
The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), he said, has been relying more heavily on technology, and had trained crime pattern analysts who have helped boost the number of crimes solved.
"Some police divisions have special homicide investigation teams and they are doing very well in terms of clearing up some of the difficult homicides," he said. But despite these successes, he said some homicides are hard to solve because eyewitnesses fail to come forward.
"Even sometimes when we collect statements from them, they end up not honouring their responsibilities as citizens by going to court," he said.
"We need your help in order for us to help you better, to provide you with a better service," he reminded the civilians present.
