Westmoreland pastors seeking to capitalise on crime reduction

WESTERN BUREAU:

Buoyed by the decline in crime, the Westmoreland Ministers Fraternal, led by Reverend Caulton Wilson, is now on a mission to strengthen broken families in that parish.

Cognisant of the crucial role a strong family unit plays in fostering a safe and healthy community, the fraternal plans to provide parents with vital information and resources to equip them with the tools and knowledge necessary to effectively guide their children.

Wilson told The Gleaner that, by addressing the root causes of social issues within families, the fraternal aims to create a more stable and resilient community in Westmoreland.

“We have a lot of concerns as a parish because what we have seen in 2024 tells us that, as a parish, we need to improve our family lives. This has a lot to do with some of the social issues and other problems that we are facing,” said Wilson.

“Many of the youngsters who have been drawn into crime have serious problems and issues that they have not resolved, even in their own personal and family lives,” noted Wilson, who is the senior pastor at the Savanna-la-Mar Baptist Church.

“[The year] 2024 was a challenging year, but one in which we saw some lowering of the crime rate, although it is still at a place that we are not comfortable with,” he said.

According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) serious crime report for last year, Westmoreland, which has been struggling to contain the spate of murders sweeping the parish in recent years, saw a welcome decline in comparison to the previous year.

Of the 1,138 murders committed in Jamaica last year, the Westmoreland Police Division accounted for 100 murders, which is 16 less than the 116 reported in 2023. Shootings also went down across the parish by 23 per cent last year with some 92 incidents, 28 less than the 120 in 2023.

According to Wilson, the reduction in both murders and shootings were made possible because of the greater security presence that was on the ground in the parish last year.

“From what we have been seeing, the security forces are quite visible in the communities and the towns. I think that has helped a lot in terms of lowering the austerity and the crime rate,” said Wilson.

Rebuilding families

In terms of social issues on broken family units, Wilson said it can no longer be business as usual and, as a result, the ministers fraternal will be leading a crusade aimed at rebuilding families to eradicate crime and violence.

“Part of the challenges we are having is that because many of our people have become migrant workers, it has an impact on the stability in the home and the family. So whereas on one hand, the economic side is taken care of, the social end is fractured,” Wilson said, in highlighting one of the factors leading to broken families.

“We have done some groundwork, but not enough to get it out there before now. This is something as a fraternal that we have to zero in on this year because there has to be a shift in terms of how we look at ourselves and how we deal with the crime situation as we have it now. And how we resocialise many of our youngsters because things are not as pretty as they might look,” he added.

Albert Ferguson