Basseterre, St. Kitts - PEOPLE'S ACTION MOVEMENT, the main St. Kitts and Nevis opposition party says overhauling the police force is vital to fight the rise in crime in the country.

In a radio interview Monday night Mr. Lindsay Grant outlined a series of measures to fight crime if his party is elected to office.
Listed among those was a repositioning of the police force.

Grant said that there needs to be "an improvement in the physical working conditions of the police, compensation for police officers injured or killed in the line of duty and a redeployment of the existing resources for the police to serve the known crime affected areas." 

Mr. Grant outlined that depoliticizing the police force is key for it to act with greater independence in carrying out it duties.
"Intregal in the short term ... is the police operating with more initiative.. .this lack of initiative in the police force is because of the politics seeping into it," he said.

Mr. Grant noted the importance of setting clear parameters for measuring promotion and structure of pay within the police force. 

"Take for example two months ago when certain persons in the police force were to be promoted, called into the commissioner' s office basically to say they were to be promoted and then the word came from the 'top' that they are not to be promoted," he said.