WESTERN BUREAU:With murders in Hanover maintaining a steady downward trajectory over the past two years, the police are now claiming that they have now neutralised the four gangs that were responsible for major crimes in the parish.Addressing a Neighborhood Watch meeting at the Hopewell Police Station on Wednesday, Deputy Superintendent of Police Dean Watson, the officer in charge of the operations in the Hanover Police Division, told residents that the parish is now relatively safe.“Across the parish, we are currently experiencing a 25 per cent reduction in major crimes, and we hope to continue in this vein,” said Watson, albeit admitting that domestic violence remained a grave concern. “I am happy to say that gang activities across the parish is almost non-existent. The murders that we are seeing this year are mostly domestic cases,” he said.Hanover, which was once touted as Jamaica’s safest parish, began experiencing violent crimes in recent years with the emergence of the Ants Nest Gang, the One Link Gang, the One Voice Gang, and the Hundred Rounds Gang, which became involved in lottery scamming, murders, and bloody conflict over turf and the spoils of criminal activities.In response, the police launched several policing initiatives and major operations in a bid to blunt the spread of crime. Those initiatives are believed to be now paying dividends based on the decline over the last two years and with 2026 following that trend.According to Watson, in 2023, Hanover recorded 76 murders. However, in 2025, the number dropped to 24. The aim for this year is to keep the number below 20.“That is a far drop from 76, and we believe we can achieve those numbers,” said Watson. “Gangs, at our latest assessment, they are non-existent. We are seeing where a lot of those persons, who we identified as gangsters, have gone to other jurisdictions, many of them across the borders, and are probably operating elsewhere.”Watson also noted that the present non-operational status of gangs is because of the relentless pursuit of gang members by the police. He said their current operational initiative, ‘Operation Cutting Edge’, is aimed at keeping the pressure on criminals.“We are seeing some great returns from this initiative,” he noted. “We are optimistic that the numbers in violent crimes in Hanover will continue to decrease in the months ahead.”Watson also praised the collaboration, cooperation, and partnerships between the police and residents, who had got fed up with the unsafe situation.“The parish got fed up, and persons said no more because we all realised that when you look at the contributors of violence, it is normally the same repeat offenders,” he said. “Our aim is to make our community safe and take back our communities one by one, ultimately taking back Jamaica.”editorial@gleanerjm.com