BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRIME MINISTER and Minister of National Security Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris has refuted claims that when in opposition some Team Unity officials had used crime as a political football by blaming the Labour Administration for its upsurge.
Dr. Harris was at the time responding to questions from media representatives during his Monthly Press Conference on Tuesday (Apr. 28), which included “to what extent has the current Administration learnt not to make crime a political football”.
“We have never made crime a political football,” Dr. Harris said, adding: “Crime was and will continue to be a matter of concerns for the citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis. As it is where there has been an upsurge in any country, we have asked the important questions of the Administration then and of the Security Forces.
“We continue to ask ourselves what more can we do and what better can we do to deliver the safety. Because, yes, crime is there and some crime will always be there...nature of society.”
While acknowledging that crime, in all its forms, is being committed worldwide and would only be seen as a problem when it has reached an unmanageable level, Dr. Harris said his Team Unity Administration does not have the quick fix in relation to it, “but we are going to be consistent in taking those measures that we are advised to best lead to significant improvement of the situation”.
He noted that some of those measures include: increase in activity of the Security Forces in identifying hotspots to prevent and detect crime; deployment of the Police Command Center to coordinate the activities of the Security Forces; preventing traditional and modern policing methods in neighbourhoods; harnessing new technology to fight crime, including effective use of a modern CCTV system in public spaces.
The Prime Minister emphasised that he wants the citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis to openly express how they feel about the crime situation, but at the same time they should commend the police and support them when they would have seen the flow of results from the measures implemented by the Security Forces.
The Security Minister stressed that the Government alone could not fight crime but “we will fight it robustly as if it was singularly our own”.
He therefore called on parents to be equally responsible and to ensure that crimes and their proceeds do not enter their homes, their neighbourhoods and their communities.
“Equally we say that the social services must be responsive to at-risk people in our community. So programmes must come to help them that will instil hope and a sense of awareness, pride and self-esteem into our people,” he added.
Dr. Harris also called on the local media to play a greater role in sensitising the populace on the intricacies of crime.
“The media can play a very deliberate and constructive role in getting our society to better understand the broad dimensions of crime; that it is a complex multi-dimensional matter and there is no single fix that will deal with it.
“And so how you report crime is an important matter. If you make stars out of the murders, then, maybe, inadvertently you are not helping in the fight against crime. So the media has a major responsibility in the way it relates to crime.”
The police, too, he noted, have a major role in crime-fighting and that they have accepted that responsibility.
“They have been charged with that responsibility and I think that they will deliver. And when we see them delivering, we must be prepared to ask that they be given all the rewards within the measure of the state and the society to do.”
He used the opportunity to thank those private individuals and entities that have been providing support, vehicles and other forms of assistance to the police. “Because I believe by those donations and assistance they are saying we are joining in the fight against crime and we can’t leave it to the Government alone, neither can we leave the police to function in a state of want.”
The Prime Minister also thanked those private providers of security services, for what he claimed had been an important supplement to the provision of security services.
Dr. Harris reiterated the call for cooperation between the populace and the police, while declaring that a very secured and effective witness protection system would be in place.
“So I invite the people to cooperate more fully with the police...give them the information. And we are prepared to provide adequate witness support for those who come forward and give the police important information that would lead to the arrest and successful prosecution of those who are committing crime.
"If we have to put you in Russia to protect you, we will do that. So when you ask how far Team Unity will go to keep the citizens and residents safe, my response is...all the way within the capacity and the capability to so do.”
