Holness Monitoring Crime Worries In His Constituency

Prime Minister Andrew Holness says he’s mon­i­tor­ing the crime sit­u­a­tion in his West Central St Andrew con­stituen­cy fol­low­ing the mur­der of three peo­ple along Hill Avenue in Olympic Gardens on Monday evening.

Holness is cur­rent­ly in Grenada attend­ing the 38^th CARICOM Heads of Government meeting.

Today, he told jour­nal­ists that he has received an update on the mur­ders from the police.

Residents have called for the Olympic Gardens com­mu­ni­ty to be des­ig­nat­ed the first zone of spe­cial operations.

They argue that it is impor­tant to send the right sig­nal, say­ing the prime min­is­ter’s con­stituen­cy, or sec­tions of it, should be used as an example.

The Zones of Special Operations Bill, which was passed in the House of Representatives last month, is to be debat­ed in the Senate on Friday before becom­ing law.

If it becomes law, it will give the prime min­is­ter pow­er, in con­sul­ta­tion with the National Security Council, to declare an area a zone of spe­cial oper­a­tions to tack­le increased volatil­i­ty in a community.

However, the zone can only be estab­lished after the police com­mis­sion­er and the chief of defence staff make a request for such a dec­la­ra­tion in writ­ing to the prime minister.

More than 697 per­sons have been mur­dered across Jamaica up to June 24, up from 584 for the sim­i­lar peri­od last year. http://​jamaica​-glean​er​.com/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​/​n​e​w​s​/​2​0​1​7​0​7​0​5​/​h​o​l​n​e​s​s​-​m​o​n​i​t​o​r​i​n​g​-​c​r​i​m​e​-​w​o​r​r​i​e​s​-​h​i​s​-​c​o​n​s​t​i​t​u​e​ncy