Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, assured the Senate on Friday that the Government is working towards introducing more zones of special operations (ZOSOs) shortly.

Senator Johnson Smith was responding to questions raised by Opposition member, Senator Damion Crawford, about statements made over the past year by the Government about its intention to increase the number of ZOSOs and boost contributions to improve the lives of Jamaicans living in crime-ridden communities.

Holness told supporters of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) at the National Arena last November that this year at least four more crime hot-spot communities are to be declared zones of special operations (ZOSOs).

He said that the Government will use the money to fund long-term interventions in crime-ridden communities, noting that states of public emergency (SOEs) could bring down the crime rate by themselves.

She said that “it is as clear as day” to those people within the communities that the states of emergency have been declared where crime is so chronic that it creates a threat to public safety on such a large scale and so dangerous a scope as to imperil public safety.