Amid Jamaica’s murder rate continuing to spiral into the new year, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has beckoned churches to rejoin the crimefighting effort.

Holness, speaking at the National Day of Prayer held at the Power of Faith Ministries in St Catherine on Wednesday (January 6), made an impassioned plea for the ‘church heartware’ to become the next phase as the combined security force struggle to cauterise the bloodshed.

“We have a massive army of heart surgeons right here in the church, you have the medicine which is the Bible and the gospel. I need you to reach beyond the walls of your church and the numbers of your congregation, especially the young boys who believe that the only solution to conflict is violence,” he noted.

“The ‘heartware’ is not about the budget that we spend. Yes, we can make the policies but we need partners and why I have decided to use this platform is that the best partner in all of this is Jesus Christ and his institution on earth, the church,” the prime minister continued.

According to Holness, the ending of the limited states of public emergency (SOEs) has direct implications to a rise in crime across Jamaica and further expressed dismay at the brutal nature of recent murders.

Jamaica recorded 14 murders since the start of the year, which the prime minister indicated was marginally higher when compared the same period in 2020.

Holness explained that over the last four years, his administration pumped $40 billion to boost the national security infrastructure—investing heavily in new vehicles, surveillance aircraft and equipment for the security forces, communication and software systems—but the prime minister, in his second term, is of the view more is needed.

“We have to see violence as a disease that is infecting our people’s hearts and we have to treat with it. There are some things that we will have to do,” Holness argued.

Holness said the propensity to use violence to resolve conflict is too high in Jamaica. He urged the church to help the government create a society where persons resolve disputes without resorting to violence.

To this end, the Jamaican PM said he delivered a mandate for security personnel to “use force, without violence”.

“The government has to be instrumental, deliberate and proactive in its message against violence; no institution of the state should use or promote violence. I have given clear policy direction to our security forces…Force and violence is not the same,” Holness contended.

Force, as Holness defined it, is the “strategic mobilisation and deployment of all resources, manpower and otherwise, to take full control of a domain”.

“Violence is the last thing you want to use, and even then, if the state uses it, it must be under control. And if violence is used, it must be investigated, especially if it results in the loss of life,” he added.