J’ca crime rate drops

Jamaica Gleaner, The past two weeks in Jamaica have been less bloody than usual as the incidence of murders took a significant nosedive from a weekly figure of 42 murders six weeks ago to 18 last week and 19 a fortnight ago.{{more}}
Although as at yesterday the country’s murder toll stood at nearly 800, the halving of the weekly murder rate over the past month-and-a-half should come as a welcome relief to law enforcers and government officials who are fast losing the confidence of the public to arrest the country’s spiralling crime rate.
Opinion surveys conducted recently by pollster Don Anderson on behalf of The Gleaner have found that about 72 per cent of some 1,200 persons of voting age and over islandwide believe the Patterson administration is not doing enough to fight crime and violence. Only 27 per cent of the persons interviewed islandwide gave the Government a passing grade.