BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AN increase in personnel serving in the Federation’s Anti-Crime Unit and a boost in duty vehicles used by them would be two of the 2013 fiscal measures to be implemented.
This pronouncement was made yesterday (Apr. 9) by St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister and Minister with responsibility for Finance, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas while speaking to specifics of the Unit’s strategy plans during his Budget Address.
“Mr. Speaker, in fiscal year 2013, the Anti-Crime Unit which falls under the Office of the Prime Minister will continue to build on its achievements during 2012 which have resulted in the containment in the escalation of crime”, he expressed.
Notably, for Office of the Prime Minister, $51,989,115 has been allocated for 2013 Recurrent Expenditure, which represents an increase of $10,626,398 or 25.7 percent over the 2012 allocation.
PM Douglas said his Office would continue to pursue the core components of its Strategic Plan, namely: Maintaining stability to facilitate economic, social and political development; Containing the escalation of crime; Cooperation with international and regional entities; and Capacity Building through training and technological advancement.
He highlighted that the Anti-Crime Unit “will focus on the implementation of this strategy to address incidents of crime perpetrated in selected communities, paying particular attention to recovering firearms from our streets”.
The visibility of the Security Forces will be stepped up by the employment of additional manpower and by augmenting the fleet of vehicles to assist them in discharging their duties.
As explained by him, other initiatives to be carried out include:
• Increased surveillance at Ports of entry and joint operations by the K-9 Onits of the Police and Defence Forces, Customs and Port Security, which have already proven to be beneficial;
• Increased consultation between the Security Forces and the private sector, as well as civil society on areas of collaboration on crime prevention;
• Town hall meetings to sensitise the public on the function of law enforcement agencies and to build partnerships with communities in addressing issues of crime; and
• Restructuring the Intelligence Unit and establishing a repository for information and intelligence.
According to PM Douglas, the Intelligence Unit would be renamed the “Strategic Intelligence Unit and will be responsible for providing intelligence to support crime fighting operations such as the Delta Unit, Special Branch Division and the INTERPOL Bureau”.
