POLICE Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake is urging divisional leadership of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to target “effective presence” in an effort to further reduce the island’s crime numbers.

Writing in the force orders last week, Blake pointed out that for a violent crime to be committed there must be someone who is motivated enough to do so, a potential victim, and the opportunity to commit the crime.

“A significant objective of any operational strategy is [the] constraining of these opportunities,” said Blake.

“Our deployments, which are based on analysis of crime data and intelligence, are predominantly to do just that. However, even while we deploy to prevent, simply having presence in the space may not be sufficient — we need effective presence,” added Blake.

He argued that effective presence by the police is that which makes a potential offender think twice before committing a violent crime.

“It is that which causes his assessment to tell him that there is a high likelihood of being intercepted, given your posture. Effective presence, while requiring significant focus, makes our job much easier, because it deters crimes that we would normally have had to deal with.

“If for one minute we believe that the criminals do not conduct their own risk assessment, in which we feature predominantly, when deciding whether or when to act, we need to think again. Let our posture be business-like and our presence always be effective, so we can determine the outcome of their assessment,” Blake charged.

The police commissioner noted that November was a challenging month for the JCF with what he described as a number of senseless multiple-victim, violent incidents and a couple of unusually high spike days.

“This challenged us only for a brief moment, as we collectively wrapped our heads around the variables at play behind this. In doing these types of assessments, it is important that we look internally to see if we need to adjust some strategy, or to simply remove any impediments to their successful implementation,” added Blake.

The week of November 18-24 was the bloodiest in the island so far this year with 44 murders recorded.

Among the frightening violent incidents last month was the killing of six men in two incidents in a gang dispute off Waltham Park Road in St Andrew; the shooting of eight people, three fatally, on Bowens Road in St Andrew; and the fatal shooting of two men in the vicinity of schools in the Corporate Area and Manchester while classes were in session.

Responding to the Waltham Park Road shootings, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that the Government has increased to $30 million, from $25 million, a special pool of funds that will serve to reward people who come forward with information leading to the arrest of perpetrators of mass killings.

“The persons who committed this act, mark my words, you will be found and you will either meet a judge or meet you maker. Anyone who commits these acts, the police will target you, focus on you, we will bring our investigative capabilities to bear, and we will find you and you will face justice,” declared Holness during a visit to the area..

At December 7 the JCF reported that major crimes were down 14 per cent when compared with the same period last year. Among the major crimes the island recorded 1,085 murders, an almost 18 per cent decline compared to the same period last year, while 955 shootings represented a 10 per cent decline compared to the same period in 2023.