BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AFTER a deadly year in which the Federation recorded its highest-ever homicide toll, the Royal St. Christopher-Nevis Police Force has unveiled its 2010 strategy for reducing gun-related incidents.
Statistics from the Police Press and Public Relations Office showed that guns were responsible for 23 of the 27 homicides in 2009 and 18 of the 23 in 2008. Over the past two years, there were 43 gun-related incidents of wounding with intent.
Despite the high rate of these crimes, the police have struggled to charge and convict perpetrators. Only six of those gun-related incidents of wounding were detected - a rate of just over seven percent.
Of the 50 homicides committed from 2008-09, 16 were detected, bringing the rate to 32 percent.
In light of these difficulties, the force has unveiled a three-pronged approach of community policing, operations and education to boost its detection skills.
According to PRO Inspector Vaughan Henderson, the police would pursue a more aggressive community policing philosophy in 2010. He noted that the force and the public already has “an excellent relationship” that, when utilised, would cut down on the number of unsolved gun-related incidents.
“We believe that the police and the community must work together to identify, prioritise and solve everyday societal problems such as crime, illegal drugs, fear of crime and general social decay,” Henderson explained. “We believe if we share the policing process with the community we could exchange this with their participation and human and financial support in the fight against crime.”
The new operational approach will result in an increased police presence and high-visibility foot and mobile patrols, aggressive patrols by the Anti-Gang Unit in known hotspots, regular stop and searches and random vehicular check points, robust patrols and surveillance of ports and open borders, and increased inter-agency cooperation.
Henderson revealed that the main objective of those measures was to reduce and eventually completely eliminate the importation of illegal firearms into the Federation.
“The gun has become the weapon of choice, not only in St. Kitts and Nevis but in almost every conceivable country in this world. We must stop the guns from coming in and that is why come 2010 you will see a much more aggressive sealing off of our borders and increased surveillance at our ports of entry.
“We are very optimistic that once we can knock a significant dent in the illegal importation of guns we could significantly reduce the murders. For this year we have already taken 33 off the streets equalling last year’s amount. In 2007, 21 and eight in 2006, a total of 95 firearms recovered from the streets in the last four years.”
The third part of the strategy is education-oriented and involves existing police programmes such as Operation Future, DARE and the Police Boys Club.
Henderson said the force was “convinced” that strong mentorship programmes would decrease gang recruitment levels and consequently weaken the gang’s influence. He added that the police would continue to educate the public in crime prevention and overall safety tips.
