Opposition challenges NHT drawdown as police defend body camera rollout

The parliamentary Opposition has criticised the Government’s plan to take further multi-billion-dollar budget support from the National Housing Trust, arguing that the trust’s available cash is being overstated and that contributors are not getting enough benefit from the agency.

During debate in the Senate on Friday, Opposition Senator Cleveland Tomlinson said workers who contribute to the NHT are being short-changed when they access mortgages through external financing partners. He argued that those borrowers miss subsidies for life insurance and peril insurance that they could have received through direct NHT loans. Tomlinson said removing $11.4 billion from the trust would weaken its ability to extend those benefits.

Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, rejected the concern. She said the withdrawal would not damage the NHT’s finances or operations, and argued that the money could not be quickly turned into solutions for the affordable housing shortage. She also said the limits facing housing delivery are not simply cash-related, and that raising loan amounts alone could push prices higher and further disadvantage the people the policy is meant to help.

In a separate national security matter, Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake dismissed claims that the Jamaica Constabulary Force leadership is resisting body-worn cameras. He said the JCF has spent about $2 billion on the supporting infrastructure, acquired roughly 1,750 cameras, and deploys about 1,500 each day. Blake said formal policies guide their use, and that camera deployment is regularly reviewed under a Deputy Commissioner of Police.

Civil society groups, including Jamaicans for Justice, and the Independent Commission of Investigations have pressed for wider camera use, especially during special operations. Blake said police shooting investigations often begin with evidence such as officer statements, recovered firearms, scene access and identified witnesses, while ordinary murder investigations frequently lack those advantages because suspects may not speak, weapons are often missing and witnesses may be afraid or unavailable.

Meanwhile, Terrence Smith was remanded after appearing in the St James Parish Court before Judge Natiesha Fairclough Hilton on Wednesday on a charge of larceny from a dwelling. The court heard that about 4:50 p.m. on April 23, a complainant in Norwood, St James, allegedly found Smith, her neighbour, in a back room and later saw him taking money from her mother’s purse. An elderly neighbour reportedly used a mop stick to stop him from advancing. Attorney Thuma Paris said he had been approached to represent Smith, and the matter was set for mention on June 24 while an eyewitness statement remains outstanding.