BASSETERRE, St. Kitts -- THE Police Force is now coming under pressure to ensure that they prevent a dual crisis as demand for the relaxation of the COVID-19 regulations shift into high gear during the busy Christmas-Carnival period.
That has prompted Commissioner of Police Hilroy Brandy to urge residents to be cautious and ensure that they take the necessary measures to protect their properties as the force will now seek to ensure that they enforce the necessary COVID-19 regulations, while at the same time ensuring law and order.
This comes as Cabinet recently removed the curfew from the regulations as the number of new COVID-19 cases continue to decline.
While speaking with SKNVibes News, CoP Brandy explained that the shifting of the curfew will now put an added demand on the police force. He noted that this is because more people will be on the road with no limit on their movements.
“With the lifting of the curfew, it has put more of a demand on the police. During different periods of time everybody is supposed to be on lockdown but now everybody is free and are roaming the streets anytime they want. So we have to be at the top of our game and have a high visibility,” Brandy told SKNVibes.
To combat this problem, the force has implemented a number of strategies that the High Command hopes will deter or limit the number of criminal activities, while at the sametime, enforcing the COVID-19 regulations since concerns remain of another spike in cases.
Brandy could not divulge the plans but noted that it will help “to prevent crime, to prevent accidents and to keep our residents safe, especially at this busy time which is Christmas and Carnival.”
The number of crimes occurring on the island has been on the decline and that has been attributed to the lockdowns and curfews that the government implemented as part of measures to curb the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus.
“At this time of the year we normally see an uptick in criminal activities because it is Christmas and Carnival and people are looking for money to go out and party, but we are up to it and we have our plan which I wouldn’t outline to you at this time. We have already started to execute our plans so we can minimize the amount of break-ins, larcenies and robberies that are likely to take place on our street,” added Brandy.
The top cop noted that crime is at its lowest for the past 3 years but did not give the statistics to back up that claim.
