Orville Taylor | Record low killings

On December 27, 2025, homicide numbers were reported. Lowest numbers since 1994. Only other time in the 2000s where we breached the 1,000 threshold was 2004, with 975, and we came close in 2014, with 1,005. In that period, the commissioner of police and his successor were allowed to police - not militarise.

At 666, honestly, the communications division might have mistimed the notice. This number, well ingrained in the minds of the 80 per cent of Jamaicans who identify with an organised Christian denomination, is the number Revelations associates with the mark of the Beast, the Anti Christ.

So a better decision would have been to not report those numbers until they changed - as they did. On New Year’s Day, despite a few more homicides, we awoke to figures of 673.

At the same time, we ended the year with around 310 civilians being killed by the police, ostensibly during planned and unplanned police operations. Three police personnel were killed by criminals and another by someone who appeared to be recklessly operating a motor vehicle. This last matter is before the courts; thus, the accused is not guilty until the judge says so.

Still, more than 1,000 Jamaicans deliberately killed others, with or without justification. Again, the lips, loosely connected to brains, released irresponsible and wagging tongues. As on previous occasions, too many, including my friends and colleagues in media and academia, carelessly spew the expression ‘extrajudicial’ in broad-brushing the police killings.

This is one of the irresponsible and factually biased descriptions, which totally obscures the truth. It is a narrative that simply needs to stop because it is misleading.

Now, be not mistaken. There is absolutely no doubt that in my mind some of these killings fall outside of the rules of engagement. A well-defined use of force policy of the constabulary, the UN’s own guidelines in this regard and common law, determined by decades of judicial decision, clearly proscribe conduct that lies outside of the rubric, explicitly outlined by these guidelines.

Extrajudicial killings are murder and unjustified. The taking of another human life has nothing to do with the character or reputation of the ‘victim’. Even if he is a mass murder like Saul (Paul) in the Bible, one only uses deadly force to stop an immediate threat, where the life of another is at risk.

A gunman, who fires at police, empties his magazine, whether or not he hits his target, then drops his firearm after being cornered, and raises his arms, is no longer a threat. If he has a loaded gun on his person, but does not reach for it, he is not qualified to be killed.

Here is an interesting fact. The man who discharged 50 rounds at the cops and dropped his gun is legally safe from being shot. However, if a man with an imitation firearm or empty pistol reaches for it or points it at them, ‘Rex, rover and bully, can share his supper.

Outside of these norms, when police kill others, it is absolutely ‘extrajudicial’. In a lawful society, everyone must obey the legal guidelines, irrespective of status. Indeed, members of the justice system, judges, lawyers, and especially front-line enforcers, the police, have a greater responsibility to obey the law. Therefore, without favour, affection, malice, or ill will, my unadulterated view is that any and every police officer who breaches the policy and takes a life should, at a minimum, be charged with manslaughter.

In all of the hysteria, while acknowledging that there are very likely unjustifiable homicides among the numbers, labelling all killing as extrajudicial is actually doing exactly to the cops what they are being accused of. It is making a blanket judgment, without due process, that all fatal encounters are police murders.

We should be grateful that Jamaica has an Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM). A critical part of the process, it digs out the truth, and where found culpable, officers are charged. My support for INDECOM is 100 per cent. Therefore, my one task is that despite the 64 per cent increase in this statistic, it consistently highlights and publishes the percentage of killings that are suspicious or worthy of prosecution.

Raw numbers barely help. The increased police fatalities only alarm when the ‘suspicious’ portion is increasing not when the aggregate rises.

Here are two sobering facts. One: police are not soldiers. They are empowered civilians like Custom and immigration officers. Therefore, they are motivated by civilian human resources and industrial-relations practices. Inasmuch as there are some elements of the High Commands HR/IR initiatives carried out over the past two years, which I have disagreed with, it has done more good than bad. Thus, understanding the science among decent work, motivation, and productivity, the commissioner demonstrated that not everyone with a doctorate is an idiot.

Second, despite the simulacrum of the security forces being outgunned, and a misconception that people typically get away with murder in Jamaica, someone needs to tell those with criminal mens rea that taking on the full brunt of the police ballistic capability is equivalent to the dog swallowing a ‘tinking toe’ whole.

What happens in the end is never a good outcome. Fact is, in a country where emboldened combatants decide to take on the security forces, the former typically loses.

When boys from private high schools take on DaCosta and Manning Cup teams, the goal difference will always favour the better trained and equipped squad.

Nevertheless, both sets of fatalities need to decrease. But let us be sensible and careful with how we process and spread the information and our opinions.

Happy New Year. Take down the decorations now.

Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.