BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – COMMISSIONER OF POLICE Austin Williams has underscored the institution’s commitment to tackling the seemingly gargantuan phenomenon of crime that faces the Federation.
Since the commencement of this year, the Federation recorded 18 murders with the most recent occurring on Saturday, August 8 at Wigley Avenue, De Village, where a 14-year-old was shot to death.
In a recent exclusive interview with the Commissioner, SKNVibes inquired of him what measures are being undertaken or will be undertaken by the police force in the not too distant future to address the issue of crime, more specifically, murder. He said the murder rate is of concern to the force and pledged to “do all in our power to arrest this unwanted situation”.
The COP explained that in additional effort to deal with the situation, the police force has intensified its existing programmes.
“The truth is that there are illegal firearms in the Federation. We conduct many operations; we have removed quite a number of firearms from the streets so far this year. The problem is the illegal firearms and we conduct searches etc., but we feel that they have been smuggled into the Federation through the porous borders. We have intensified our operations, we have been conducting joint operations with other security forces and we have removed other firearms from the streets. We have been aggressively mounting operations to combat the problem.”
The force’s approach to the growing problem, the Commissioner noted, is not delimited to the mere strengthening of existing programmes but includes the institution of new measures and strategies.
“We have also introduced closed circuit television in known hot spots. We have increased the visibility of the police in particular in the rural district with some new marked vehicles, and we continue to patrol the beaches and the rural district with more aggressive intent.”
Commissioner Williams explained that these measures would see limited results without the invaluable assistance of the public.
“We call on the public to share information in reference to illegal firearms and we need eye witnesses to come forward with information. These crimes are not always done undercover or in isolation. People do have information but they are not coming forward. We understand it’s a fear of reprisals but we encourage people to come forward and we want to assure them that there must be somebody in the force who they can trust to give information to.”
