Jamaica records drop in murders

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Jamaica is reporting a slight decrease in murders so far this year, with official figures putting the murder toll at 1,251 as of December 17 this year as compared with 1, 471 for the same period last year. This represents a decline of 8.2 per cent.

Last year, Jamaica recorded 1,498 murders.

According to the latest figures, St Thomas in the south eastern end of the country recorded a 46 per cent reduction with 18 fewer murders, followed by St Andrew Central with 24 fewer over the same period.

Trelawny in northwest Jamaica, with 21 homicides and Manchester, the sixth largest parish in south central Jamaica, with 41 each recorded a 25 per cent drop in murders.

The figures show that Hanover, the second smallest parish, saw a 56 per cent spike in murders with 69, compared with 44 for the corresponding period last year, while St Ann on the north coast of the island, moved from 66 last year to 78 so far this year.

Clarendon, south of here, and Kingston Western recorded nine more murders each over last year while Portland on the northeast coast is up by two so far this year.

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