The Zones of Special Operations Act has been gazetted and is therefore now law.

Minister of Information, Senator Ruel Reid, announced this afternoon that he had received a copy of the Jamaica Gazette indicating that the law, having been duly published, is “the law of the land.”

The legislation titled in short Zones of Special Operations Special Security and Community Development Measures Act 2017 was tabled in the House of Representatives on March 21. It was passed in the Senate on July 7 after 13 amendments.

The law gives the Prime Minister, on the advice of the National Security Council, the authority to declare any high crime area of Jamaica a zone for special security operations and community development measures.

The law is part of a national security strategy that targets strategic subject areas: Violence and Crime, Public Order, Corruption, Community Safety, Territorial Integrity, Crisis response and Resilience, Justice, Cyber Defence, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Economic Security.