IN response to howling concerns about the out of control crime wave and soaring murder rate, Prime Minister Bruce Golding on Thursday formed a social intervention committee consisting of representatives from government departments and social groups.

Golding convened the meeting hours before leaving on a trip to the Latin American/ European Union summit in Lima, Peru.
The committee was formed a day after Golding promised to bring 'crime infested communities' back into the mainstream of society, minutes after the swearing in of newly-appointed minister of national security, Trevor MacMillan.

According to statistics obtained from police blotters, 675 persons have been murdered between January 1 this year and 7:00 pm on Friday. Three police officers have also been shot and killed so far this year.

In the first 16 days of this month 76 persons, an average of 4.75 persons per day, have been killed.

Golding has appointed himself head of the social intervention committee, which will be chaired by education minister, Andrew Holness, until his return on May 28.

The core group is drawn from representatives of the Ministry of National Security, the police, the Jamaica Defence Force, the Planning Institute of Jamaica, the National Centre for Youth Development, the Social Development Commission, Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Peace Management Initiative, Kingston Restoration Company and Reverend Al Miller.

A release from the Office of the Prime Minister said the committee is mandated to recommend strategies to assist in a community re-socialisation programme for the country.
The release quoted Golding as urging government agencies "that provide some of the basic but critical social services such as garbage collection and repairs to broken sewerage mains, should endeavour to respond more speedily to the needs of these communities, in order to help arrest the social decay and the feeling that no one cares."

The resources of the police is being severely tested with gang wars raging in more than a dozen Corporate Area inner city communities including August Town, Grants Pen, several sections of Waltham Park Road, Greenwich Town, Olympic Gardens, Payne Land, Parade Gardens, 'Samocan', Seaview Gardens and Red Hills Road.

But Golding, in a bid to ease fears that total anarchy is on the horizon asked for a more strategic approach "to drive a wedge between communities and criminals who do not necessarily enjoy the support of the residents, but nevertheless drive fear into them".