BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – COMMISSIONER of the Royal Antigua and Barbuda Police Force Wendell Robinson has advised leaders of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Force to challenge the powers that be in ensuring that the Force has all the resources necessary to fight crime.
Robinson was in the Federation only last week for the graduation of 20-plus officers from an Advanced Serious Crime Investigations Course, which included one member of Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise Department and three from the Royal Antigua and Barbuda Police Force.
In giving brief remarks at the closing ceremony on Friday (Nov. 27), he thanked the Government and facilitators as well as the local Police Force for extending the olive branch thereby enabling Antigua’s officers to participate.
The Commissioner declared that old methodologies could not be used to fight crime in this modern era, but noted that training is one of the tools used to keep officers abreast with emerging trends.
“Training is good, training is important and sometimes we have to adapt to the changes. The way in which criminals commit offences these days and the type of crimes that are being committed, we cannot depend on old time policing methodologies and expect that it will work. And, therefore, even if government gives us resources, still beg for more. And we have to be strong and make the statement clearly that if a government needs us to have the time under control, then the government has to do what it has to do and you as the head of the department has to put the pressure on.
“I hope I’m not talking out of turn here, but I would use, sometimes, these opportunities publicly and put the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda and my Minister on a challenge. But, of course, you have to do so in very respectful and very diplomatic terms.”
Commissioner Robinson expressed that while security is costly, one could never spend too much money on keeping a nation or the region safe.
“Security is a very expensive venture and nothing can replace training and development. You have to impress upon the powers that be that you can’t spend too much money on policing, not in a 21st Century. And we cannot wait until something serious happens and then decide that we will react, we have to be proactive and we have to share information, share intelligence, train together and build that bond. That is what regional security is all about.”
Having recorded only five murders for the year, Commissioner Robinson explained that he had to redeploy the team that investigates homicides to ensure that other areas of crime are dealt with.
“We have within our Criminal Investigations Department a separate unit that deals with homicides. And because this year, to God be the glory, we have only had five homicides, I have decided to give (the team) a little bit more work to do. So I sort of put the team together with CID to assist in other serious investigations like robberies as the case may be. When your neighbor’s house is on fire, you don’t laugh, you wet yours and I hope that this is the beginning of entering into discussions with other law enforcement agencies within the region so that we can put our heads together in terms of problem solving and crime solving.”
Underscoring the importuning of training programmes such as the one the officers recently concluded, Robinson said they not only prepare the officers but they also strengthen the Caribbean community.
“We are living in a global village and whether we believe it or not, if we are attacked by terrorism or some terrorist activity in Antigua, it affects St. Kitts, it affects Anguilla, it affects all of us in the Caribbean. We should not be naive to what is happening world-wide and think that it would happen without our borders and therefore we have to be prepared. It behooves us as police administrators to ensure that our subordinates, our personnel receive the requisite training.”
