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And, with no arrests yet for all those killings, a cross section of the community has embraced the State of the Emergency. But, it can't be maintained forever. Minister of State for National Security Elodio Aragon admitted that 2018's state of emergency wasn't exactly a cure-all for criminal activity. He's called these efforts a way to arrest the situation but spoke to the need for a tangible and strategic plan for the criminal element:

Hon. Elodio Aragon - Minister of State, Ministry of National Security
"We've been down this road, alright. This is where we have called a state of emergency. As far as I know when I was a police officer I can remember. operations after operations, state of emergency etcetera. We had a lot of them. My thing with this- and from the Ministry's standpoint- is that at this point in time, this state of emergency is to arrest the situation but yes we must come up with a tangible and strategic plan in terms of how we go about dealing with the crime situation. At the end of the day we have to look way down in the medium and long term to get the kind of success that will be benefit everybody on a whole. How do we go about doing this? Well, yes, we have strategic plans, strategic objectives from the Commissioner but I do think that there is a greater need to look at things that are truly affecting the whole cause and effect. One, we have to look at our judiciary. We must look at law reform in terms of the criminal laws that are out there, things that would help our officers in terms of a greater efficiency in prosecution, whether it be training, whether it be improvement in forensics, etcetera. These are the kinds of things that we must focus on to help us. I know we have new technologies coming in to stream. But, at the end of the day, we must have a plan that will be holistic. Not only in terms of asking other Ministries to come on board such as the Ministry of Youths, Sports and Culture, which, to a certain extent they are there, looking at people who are interacting in interventions and what not, but I do think that we must look at it from a systemic approach in dealing with the things that would have that long term effect that we need in this country. And a lot of it has to be done, and it's not something that you will get there overnight but a start must be made in terms of law reform for one. I can tell you, when you look at some of the things that we must fight with in court, some of what has held us back in the police and has disadvantaged the prosecution side has to do with the fact that our laws have not been updated. I was in England a number of years ago, I worked out there for a little while as an attached officer out there and I could tell you, they long surpassed what they left here for us. These are the kind of things that I think it cannot be looked at right away in terms of today and there is a solution tomorrow. These things must be looked at properly, strategically, so that we can have that medium and long term success."

As we've told you the Governor-General's declaration of a state of emergency will last 30 days but it is expected that the Ministry will thereafter apply for an extension of the declaration.