Jamaica Records Significant Decline in Murders in 2025

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Jamaica is ending 2025 with a more than 40 per cent reduction in murders as compared to the same period last year, according to figures released by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

Police Commissioner, Dr Kevin Blake, speaking during his Year in Review presentation.It said that for the period January 1 to December 27 this year, the island recorded 666 murders as compared with 1,142 for the same period last year, a decline of 41.7 per cent.

According to the JCF, Westmoreland,  St. James, St. Andrew and St. Catherine North, which together had reported 439 killings last year, recorded a total of 234 murders, with the St. James recording the best figures with 56 murders, 61 less than 2024.

The police reported also that shootings across the country had declined significantly from the 1.003 figure posted last year to 692, a decline of 31 per cent and there was a mix bag as it related to crimes like rape.

There were 312 rape cases reported during the period this year as compared with 435 last year. But robbery inched up to 684 from the 634 figure last year and breakins reached 1,068 as against 913 last year.

Earlier this month, Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake reported that there were 310 fatal shootings by the police this year, and that while the incidents remain the subject of ongoing police investigations, it is important to place them in proper context.

“It must be clearly stated that the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s preference is, and has always been, to preserve life and bring offenders before the court. The data for 2025 supports this unequivocally. To give context to the discussion, we have increased operations by over 70 per cent, this means that there were over 100,000 interactions between police and citizens over the year,” he said.

Blake urged Jamaicans not to encourage criminals in challenging the security forces, hoping for fewer fatal shootings in 2026.

“The Jamaica Constabulary Force remains committed to lawful measures and accountable policing, even as we confront increasingly armed and violent criminal elements. Our aim is justice, not confrontation, and the evidence shows that, whenever possible, life is preserved,”  he said in his Year in Review, adding that he remains “deeply proud” of the men and women of the JCF.

“’ The results we are seeing in 2025 are the product of long hours, difficult decisions, professionalism, and exceptional support from our stakeholders,” he said, adding that  2025 has been a year in which strategy, accountability and partnership have translated into measurable outcomes for the Jamaican people.

“In 2017, our beautiful nation recorded in excess of 1,640 murders. At that time we had made the resolve that we would never get back there. That year we recorded the third-highest number of murders in our country’s history, and so we use that year as a benchmark year with which we measure our progress today.

“At the start of 2025, we made a clear commitment to consolidate the gains of previous years whilst intensifying our focus on violent crimes, particularly murders and shootings. As we stand here today I can say with confidence that 2025 was a year in which hundreds of lives were saved and violent crimes significantly reduced. Murders are down by 43 per cent nationally,” he added