20 more ZOSOs to be established across the Island: PM Holness

Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness, says zones of special operations (ZOSOs) are to be rolled out into an additional 20 communities across the island.

Holness said that the finance ministry is already working on the budgetary allocations that will be required to sustain the measures while the security forces undertake a major recruitment drive.

"Yes, there are more zones (of special operations) coming. We have identified, so far, 20 communities, and they are dispersed all over," Holness declared in the House of Representatives yesterday.

He made the disclosure during the sitting of the House of Representatives on October 16, where a resolution extending the zone in Mount Salem, St. James, for a period of 60 days, was approved.

To ensure the effectiveness of the impending ZOSOs, the prime minister said his administration is now studying the two operations that have been declared in Mount Salem, St James, and in the west Kingston community of Denham Town.

“The two zones that we have are what we would call now the test cases. We have had a year and some months to study them, to see the shortfalls… to see what legislative changes need to be made,” Prime Minister Holness said.

“But because the engagements are not short-term, they have to be planned properly. We don’t want to go and implement a ZOSO that is not adequately funded – where we know where we are going with it – and adequately resourced in terms of manpower,” he added.

Holness also pointed out that the “Ministry of Finance and the Public Service already knows what the outlay will be and how that will have to be programmed”.

A ZOSO can be declared under the Law Reform (Zones of Special Operations) (Special Security and Community Development Measures) Act.

The law seeks to contain crime while safeguarding the human rights of residents and promoting community development through social-intervention initiatives in communities where a zone operates.