By Prince Moore
The Crime Monitoring Oversight Committee (CMOC) is seeking to review the National Consensus on Crime to include short-term targets.
CMOC Chairman Lloyd Distant said the review is necessary to account for the feedback from its stakeholders on ways to improve the focus of the initiative.
He said some government priorities for the reduction of crime that were not included in the initial consensus, will be added.
While the initial consensus focused on medium to long-term initiatives, he said more focus must be placed on the immediacy of violent crimes and the need for short-term targets.
"We recognise that whilst we’re achieving a sustainable reduction and that’s the medium to long-term target, we want to see other things that we all agree need to be done right now to create some immediacy in reducing violent crime in particular," he said.
Mr. Distant said discussions are ongoing with stakeholders to outline the short-term target areas.
He said these would include the need for more police presence in crime-prone areas as well as a focus on the Enhanced Security Measures Act.
"And then a big, huge component is community cooperation, growing of citizens’ associations, enabling community mobilsation, the role of the churches, improving community resiliency in general," he added.
