The Crime Observatory

About The Crime Observatory

Jamaica has seen a sharp increase in homicides and violence related injuries over the last three years. In 2005 alone, the number of homicide recorded by the police was 1,675 cases. The treatment of violence related injuries accounts for 50% of the recurrent budget allocated to referral hospitals. Some of our high schools are now guarded by police officers on a daily basis. Dispute and conflict resolution is also a frequent topic amongst education interventions in schools and other institutions.

In 2006, the Jamaica Constabulary Force saw a decrease in shootings and other types of wounding over the first 5 months period. Interventions including Operation King Fish and Crime Stop have seen the Force respond within their limited resources. On a daily basis, intervention plans are hampered by scarce funding, inadequate staffing, and coordination of data and social interventions at the divisional level. The established of a Crime Observatory which has been used in several countries (eg Columbia and Wales) to reduce the impact of crime is being proposed.

The Crime Observatory monitoring and implementation capabilities will enhance the work being done by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) in the following ways:

The system will help to highlight all the problem areas, hot-spots or spatial statistical analysis of the prevalence of crime and violence related injuries and assessment of impact of social programme
Through the collection, analysis and reporting of Crime & Violence Related Injuries, the system will standardize the way crime data is analyzed and interpreted. The system will also see the JCF fulfilling the targets set in its Corporate Plan.
The Coordinating of crime data with data from other agencies
Monitoring and evaluation of the impact of specific interventions on violence related injuries and local crime rates
It will provide an inter-sectorial team to assist in the coordination and implementation of crime reduction and violence prevention strategies