NEW YORK, USA — Jamaicans in the United States have reacted sharply to Friday's killing and wounding of four members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), renewing an offer to help fight crime at home, and launching a GoFundMe account for the families of the ill-fated cops.

In a statement condemning the deadly attack on the police officers in Horizon Park just outside Spanish Town, St Catherine, the Jamaica Diaspora Task Force on Crime Intervention and Prevention warned that Jamaica could be “on the path of no return in its efforts to contain the high murder rate now affecting the country”.

“Laws are being flouted by these criminals, which will have a severe impact on our ability to reach the goals of our 2030 vision,” said task force Chairman Dr Rupert Francis, adding that new measures and an all-hands-on-deck approach are needed in the fight to bring the country's murder toll under control.

The task force has added the possibility of a new correctional facility equipped to provide the requisite rehabilitative programmes, amid the back and forth in Jamaica over which Administration turned down a British offer for a new state-of-the art prison.

And a former member of the JCF, Dwight P Bailey, is recommending that Government invests in motion-activated cameras and drone surveillance as part of its efforts to deal with murders and other acts of criminal activities in the country.