Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced a State of Emergency (SOE) for the Kingston Eastern Police Division.

The Prime Minister said that acting on a recommendation of the leadership of the security forces he has petitioned the Governor General, Sir Patrick Allen, to declare the State of Public Emergency in the police division.

In that regard, the SOE will impact areas in some five constituencies to include hot spots such as Mountain View Avenue, Rockfort, Bull Bay and other communities in the police division.

The announcement was made this morning (Sunday, January 26) during at Press Briefing at Jamaica House.

According to Prime Minister Holness, the declaration comes against the background of the high levels of crime including gang warfare taking over the police division making it a crime hot spot.

In the meantime, the Prime Minister underscored the importance of the national security budget and the details with regard to the expenses.

He said that his Administration is spending more than four times the amount spent by the previous administration on the capital budget of the Ministry of National Security.

“A primary reason is that we as a country did not see it as appropriate to allocate the necessary resources to fighting crime. The Government has sought to increase the size of both forces, to increase the capital base of the forces – meaning the acquisition of more equipment, technology and intelligence and improve the leadership capabilities and investing in the particular areas of strength and response for example; investigations,” stated Prime Minister Holness.

The Prime Minister asserted that the Government has been transparent in its efforts and is seeking to fix forty years of disinvestment in national security in order to tackle crime and violence.

“What we are doing now is to catch up back and move ahead of 40 years of disinvestment in National Security”

In wrapping up, Prime Minister Holness said the Government will stick to its plan on fighting crime and addressing public order.

“A part of the National Security apparatus is to increase our technology footprint and not just to detect crime but a part of our national security has to do with securing our ports, securing our telecommunications and all of that is now being done which wasn’t being done in a significant way before,” said Prime Minister Holness.