Calls For Jamaica To Curb Police Killings

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(AP) A former Northern Ireland police ombudsman says Jamaican security forces must significantly curb fatal shootings of civilians if they want islanders to trust them.

Nuala O'Loan says there is, in her words, an "unparalleled level of police shootings in Jamaica." The former Northern Ireland investigator says she has never seen "police fatal shootings in the way I have seen them here."

She says there were 147 fatal shootings by Jamaican police between January and June of this year. In 2012, Jamaican security forces killed 219 people, nine more than in 2011.

Human rights activists have repeatedly criticized the number of shootings by Jamaica's police.

A commission that investigates allegations of abuse by Jamaican forces released a Monday statement with the comments made by O'Loan in a speech at Montego Bay.