Cranking up Crime Stop
WITH MORE than 600 murders committed across the island since the start of this year and serious and major crimes running four per cent above the corresponding period last year, Crime Stop Jamaica will be revamping its public-relations operation to tempt more members of the public to tell what they know about crimes.
Crime Stop is a private sector-funded initiative, which facilitates the public sharing information about crimes without whistleblowers having to identify themselves even when they collect the rewards offered for information leading to arrest and conviction.
Prudence Gentles, manager at Crime Stop Jamaica, says that as part of its revamp, it has relaunched its CS311 programme, a miniseries that dramatises unsolved crimes, especially murders.
The CS311 programme was discontinued in 2010 due to the lack of funding, but Gentles said that it returned to the air late last month, with one show each week since then.
So far, there has been no significant increase in the number of calls to Crime Stop, but there is hope that more persons will soon be dialling its numbers.
“The numbers go up and down, and it is very difficult to gauge why. It may very well be because we have been suffering in the woodwork for too long,” argued Gentles.
The numbers go up and down, and it is very difficult to gauge why.