INDECOM data reveal alarming pace of fatal Police shootings

Opposition calls for de-escalation training and independent oversight

Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) data reveal that 133 persons have been shot and killed by members of the security forces since the start of 2026, an average of more than 26 lives per month, Opposition Spokesperson on Justice Zuleika Jess revealed during her sectoral contribution in Parliament on Wednesday, calling for immediate and systemic reform of Jamaica’s policing accountability framework.

Jess expressed serious concern at the public response from the country’s most senior justice officials. She cited the Minister of Justice’s declaration that the law permits police to use deadly force against a fleeing suspect, and the Police Commissioner’s instruction to officers not to become paralysed by public criticism in the wake of fatal shootings, describing both as statements that erode public confidence and build a wall of institutional arrogance around the security forces.

“Running away must never become an automatic death sentence. The right to due process, to a fair trial, and to the presumption of innocence are not suspended the moment a person flees. When the Minister of Justice tells a grieving nation that flight justifies execution on the street, that is not a legal clarification. That is a dangerous signal.” warned MP Zuleika Jess

The Opposition Spokesperson was careful to affirm the right of police officers to defend themselves when confronted with deadly force from criminal elements, and called for transparency as a central tool of protection, both for the public and for the reputation of the Police Force itself. She argued that visibility into police operations, rather than defensiveness from leadership, is the most effective antidote to eroding public trust.

She called for the mandatory deployment of body-worn cameras for all officers engaged in planned operations, enhanced training in de-escalation tactics, and a strengthened independent oversight framework to ensure that accountability is not treated as an attack on the institution but as an essential condition of its legitimacy.

Kingston, Jamaica. June 6, 2026: Ninety per cent of all legal aid requests received by the Legal Aid Council are for civil matters, yet the Government continues to restrict legal aid almost exclusively to criminal cases, Opposition Spokesperson on Justice Zuleika Jess revealed during her sectoral contribution in Parliament on Wednesday. More damningly, the Minister of Justice publicly admitted during the Standing Finance Committee that the Ministry has the fiscal space to expand coverage but has chosen not to act.

Jess cited the Chief Justice’s Civil Division Statistics Report, which records more than 16,000 new civil cases filed in Parish Courts every year, with at least one party unrepresented in up to 70 per cent of those disputes. The majority of civil legal aid requests are from victims of domestic abuse seeking divorce. She described the Government’s refusal to act as a betrayal of the poor and a choice, not a resource constraint.

“The money is sitting in the treasury. The Minister has publicly confessed that the fiscal space exists. Yet this administration lets those funds sit idle while poor Jamaicans are crushed by legal fees or forced to forfeit their rights. Access to justice cannot be a half-measure.” stated Zuleika Jess, MP, Opposition Spokesperson on Justice.

She also called for the urgent amendment of the Firearms (Prohibition Restriction and Regulation) Act, after a music producer was sentenced to a mandatory minimum of fifteen years for possessing imitation firearms used as props in music videos. She noted that state prosecutors and defence attorneys had reached the rare position of standing together in agreement that the law is unjust, and that government forensic resources had been expended conducting ballistics tests on a cardboard cutout of a firearm.

She called on Parliament to restore full sentencing discretion to judges and to apply any amendments retroactively so that those currently imprisoned under the legislation can have their sentences reviewed.