BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A six-prong crime-fighting strategy has been adopted by the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force with the hope of achieving greater success in arresting the problem of crime within the Federation.
According to Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris, Acting Commissioner of Police Stafford Liburd had recently presented the plan to the Federal Cabinet and it is specifically crafted to reduce homicides and violent crimes.
He said the plan encompasses an amalgam of old and new strategies and listed the six legs as:
• Prevention;
• Intelligence-led policing;
• Targeted Operations;
• Collaboration with other agencies;
• Engagement of stakeholders – which includes launching four major town hall meetings; and
• Improvement of administration, etc.
Dr. Harris advised that the plan is one with a difference, in that it “would not sit idly by on anybody’s desk or shelf” and that it is being backed by resources.
“The intent of this plan and what would make it different [is the] wholesome approach, the intent of having it sustained and it would be implemented. That is the difference that I think that we would want to bring to the fore at this point in time.”
Questioned by the media about the newness of the strategy and whether it would not be prudent to tackle the crime problem from a legislative angle, the Prime Minister pointed out that legislation was used and would continue to be used but, as a stand-alone, would be ineffective.
He explained that legislation is ineffective if arrests were not first made, therefore, there is a thrust towards forensics and the pumping of proper resources into the crime-fighting mechanism.
“And, of course, no plan would be all new; it must embody some of the old and tested things that had not been consistently applied. Every plan, like every budget, means nothing unless backed by resources…The successes to date within three weeks, we have searched more vehicles that we have searched for all of the year last year, is a difference. People feel it and people know the strategy is the right one. We have to hold firm in relation to it!”
Assistant Commissioner of Police with responsibility for Crime, Ian Queeley informed that as part of the holistic strategic approach, there are plans afoot to establish a “criminal justice strategic board to develop protocols with the judiciary to ensure that the backlog of certain cases are disposed of in a timely manner and to bring the perpetrators to justice speedily and to enforce things like curfews…”
Statistics recently disseminated by the police show that there has been a more than 50 percent decrease in major crime, barring homicides, during the period January-June 2015 as compared to the same period in 2013.
