The year 2015 has recorded the highest murder toll in the last five years for Jamaica, with western parishes accounting for a high number of homicides, according to police statistics.
With 1,192 murders recorded as at December 26th, 2015 leads the years 2011-2014 although it also boasts the highest clear-up rate at 616.
Clear-up rate between 2011 and 2014 averaged about 400 over the previous four years.
According to the Jamaica Observer, the figures should not bode well for Dr. Carl Williams who is a year into his tenure as commissioner of police and Security Minister Peter Bunting, who presided over a steady increase in murders since taking over the portfolio in 2011, with the exception of 2014 when the murder toll topped out at 997.
Bunting had said previously that lotto scamming had been driving murders in western parishes.
