Top cop in Jamaica to send more officers onto streets to fight worrying uptick in homicides

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica's top cop says he will send more officers into island hot spots to combat a worrying uptick in homicides.

Police Commissioner Carl Williams said Thursday that "there are persons among us who have become killing machines."

Last year, Jamaica saw double-digit decreases in every crime category, including a 16 percent drop in homicides. The 1,005 slayings recorded last year was the lowest annual total in over a decade.

But in recent days, there has been a growing list of shooting incidents killing multiple people at a time on the island of 2.7 million people.

Williams says the full resources of the police force will be tapped to fight the upsurge in slayings.