Collaboration key to solving crime problems, says PM
PRIME MINISTER Andrew Holness believes collaboration between stakeholders is key to solving the region’s crime problems.
Addressing the second annual security seminar hosted by the Office of the National Security Advisor, at the AC Hotel in St Andrew on February 7 and which this year addressed the global challenge for organised crime, Holness noted that the problems Jamaica faces are not unique to that country.
“The present problems that we have are as a result of the structure of society, economy, politics, it is the things that we do that create the problems so we have to study (it) so that we can figure out what we need to do differently in order to create a new algorithm of peace, productivity, and prosperity,” Holness said.
“Some of the factors that define this algorithm, some of them require collaboration because they don’t happen in isolation and that’s what this seminar is about, about bringing together not just the security experts and professionals and practitioners but to bring together a diverse set of personnel thinking and policy experts so that we can properly understand this problem and to collaborate on a solution,” he added.
Recent data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reveal that the Americas and the Caribbean face a higher risk of criminal violence on a per capita basis compared to other regions of the world, a statistic that Holness said is a cause for concern and also underscores the urgency of the seminar on crime.
The UN, he also noted, has predicted a new era of conflict and violence where the nature of violence has transformed substantially, adding, “I would put it to you that Jamaica is having that experience, where the nature of violence has transformed.”
“It is imperative that we continue to collaborate and address this challenge collectively,” Holness stressed, and suggested that the region draw upon shared experiences and expertise to find sustainable solutions.
Holness lamented that, for a region as beautiful and culturally diverse as the Caribbean, the sobering reality of crime and violence continues to present new and emerging threats.
Organised crime in Jamaica operates with a certain level of intelligence, he pointed out, and deliberately spreads fear.
“It is a form of terrorism; we call it criminal terrorism that’s what they are designed to do,” Holness suggested.
Held under the theme, ‘Organised Violence and the Threat to Peace in Jamaica and the Region’, the one-day seminar drew more than 100 experts from the area of security and law enforcement.
These include Dr Paul Angelo, director of the William Perry Centre for Hemispheric Defense Studies in the United States. Michael Ben’Ary, associate deputy attorney general, US Department of Justice, and Arun Rao, deputy assistant attorney general, US Department of Justice.