Police Commissioner Anderson, NYPD Deputy Commissioner push back against US travel warning

 

Commissioner of Police, Major General Antony Anderson says he's surprised at the recent travel advisory issued by the United States cautioning its citizens against travel to Jamaica due to crime, despite a reduction in serious crimes in the country.

 

The US Department of State has issued a Level 3 travel advisory for tourists to "reconsider travel," which is just one level short of the most severe warning to Americans advising against travel altogether.

 

General Anderson says Jamaica has a low rate of crimes against tourists and is therefore safe for visitors. 

 

"I think it's important that especially we have a large diaspora in New York. I understand about a million Jamaicans are in New York. That's a large population and we don't want them scared about coming home either. We had three million Americans visit Jamaica last year. We had five homicides in that three million visitors of which the police have cleared up three of them so far."

 

He said none of the incidents took place within a tourist area, adding that all the victims were both Jamaican and US citizens. 

 

At the same time, Deputy Commissioner in the New York Police Department, Tarik Sheppard, also pushed back against the recent travel advisory from the US State Department.

 

He believes the advisory is giving a perception and igniting fear that it is unsafe for tourists to visit Jamaica, despite the country having very beautiful and safe areas for visitors. 

 

"We deal with some of that in New York City as well. So we have to share ideas on how to combat that and make sure that people know the right information and that people feel safe," he suggested. 

 

Mr. Sheppard said, with Jamaica recently experiencing its safest year in 22 years, he is impressed with the accomplishments made by local law enforcement to combat crime.

 

He urged tourists to visit Jamaica as it is safe. 

 

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Sheppard and Jamaica's Commissioner of Police Anderson were speaking at a recently held high level security meeting involving representatives of Jamaica and the US.