A remarkable achievement by the police.

That’s how Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Horace Chang, has described the 37 murders recorded in August.

Dr. Chang released the figure on Friday, along with a year-to-date count showing murders down more than 21 percent on 2025.

Thirty-seven murders in August 2026 is a 35 percent reduction over the 57 homicides recorded in the same month last year.

Chevon Campbell tells us more.

Between January first and September second, Jamaica recorded 368 murders.

That is 101 fewer than the same period last year, when the count stood at 469, a 21.five percent reduction.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security and Peace, Doctor Horace Chang, calls the August figure a remarkable achievement and credits the commitment and sacrifice of members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, JCF.

Last year closed on 674 murders, the lowest annual total in three decades.

In January, Jamaica recorded 33 murders, the lowest monthly figure since the police began collecting crime statistics in their present form, in 2001.

March and May each recorded 39.

August’s 37 sits between them.

If the current pace holds to the end of the year, Jamaica would finish 2026 with roughly 550 murders.

This would replace 2025 as the lowest annual figure in more than 30 years.

Police Commissioner, Dr. Kevin Blake has put the murder rate at 24 per 100,000 people.

For most of the past three decades, it sat in the thirties and forties.

The regional average is 15.

According to Dr. Chang, the reduction in murders provides tangible evidence of progress in the collective effort to build a safer and more secure Jamaica.