The Tribune

By NICOLE BURROWS

An ignorant and very idiotic person once referred to me as an Eastern-Road type. I was too down-to-earth, he insinuated, to be of Lyford Cay or Old Fort Bay ilk, or some other part of the island he had racially profiled to be the home of lighter-skinned people.

I suppose that person, and others like him, would never believe I live in an early-stage-ghetto neighbourhood of Mount Moriah.

Marvin Dames is the Free National Movement (FNM) candidate for my constituency. And he has provided a crime ‘plan’ on behalf of the FNM. I don’t know how much of it originates in the mind of Dames himself, so maybe he should not bear the full weight of my criticism. But, amazingly - though not surprisingly - Hubert Minnis suggests it is a “strong plan”. It is not.

It is, in fact, not a plan. It is a list of intentions. Yes, a plan needs to start somewhere, but this list of ideas comprises the thoughts that go into creating the plan, not the plan itself. There are too many unanswered questions about the bulleted points contained in the ‘plan’, like:

Why are you doing it?

What has your research shown to suggest this is a good idea?

How do you intend to achieve it?

When will you do it?

What will you do it with, as every item in the list has a cost attached?

The FNM’s ‘plan’ is, in essence, a wishlist. And unless they can attach a timeline of action, a clear method, and a cost to everything on the wishlist, it is not a plan and will not be effective.

Because almost everything on the list has a financial cost, additional source(s) of funding will be needed to achieve these things, assuming that if they/we know these things need to be done and have not been done to date, the reason must be a lack of adequate funding. That’s just one part of it.

Dames speaks of how there is a problem of enforcement and execution ... putting plans into effect, but he does not show that he knows how his wishlist, even if somewhat admirable in what it attempts, will be put into effect. He says we’re good at thinking of what needs to be done, but it’s the execution we’re not good at. But the execution is missing from the FNM’s ‘plan’.

How does Dames or the FNM expect the public to be convinced that they can achieve the things on their wish list, without convincing statements about their study of these issues and on how these things on their list will be achieved?

As former Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dames has specific information we all need about why strategies used to date do not work, but he wouldn’t dare give it. That in itself is a part of the crime problem - people knowing exactly what’s going on and not having the fortitude to openly and fully address it.

Here is the FNM’s wishlist with a few general concerns, to emphasise how much is missing in content and thought.

Develop a modern, efficient crime-fighting machine properly manned, trained and equipped to prevent crime where possible.

A very broad and general statement. Modern how? Efficient how? Properly manned with what/who? Equipped with what? How is any of this different from what has already been done or is already in place? And at what cost?

Detect crime when it occurs and bring those responsible to account before the courts.

Again, how? With what tools? In what amount of time?

Work with community-based partners to change the culture of violence in our communities through neighbourhood safety programmes.

How will you change the culture of violence? Can you do it without psychologists/psychiatrists? What is a neighbourhood safety programme? Who is responsible for it? When will it be implemented? Will civilians be on rotation? Will they have a direct line to armed police?

Eliminate habitats where criminality flourish[es].

Where is this? Seems like everywhere and anywhere. Could happen in someone’s living room, a school, on a dock, in a moving vehicle ... do you even know where criminality flourishes?

Enact legislation to establish the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

Where’s the draft legislation? Does it meet the needs of the society? What part does the society play in the development of this legislation? Organised civil society, individual citizens ..? How does your idea for NIA legislation measure up against what is existent? Was there not talk that the NIA was already acting without legislation? How do you intend to manage that aspect of this proposal?

Use state-of-the-art technology in our fight against crime including gunshot detection devices, social media exploitation technologies, drones, etc.

‘State-of-the-art’ anything costs lots and lots of money. Who’s funding it? What is a gunshot detection device? What is social media exploitation technologies? How will you use drones, where, how often and for what purpose, and how can you protect ordinary citizens’ privacy when using them? The ‘etc’ is a bad sign. It says you are adding anything else you can think of or you’re not sure what you’re thinking of.

Establish a National Neighbourhood Watch Consultative Council to oversee and promote neighbourhood watch programmes across the country.

Too wordy. But apart from that, who will staff it? Will participation be mandatory or elective? What kind of schedule will you implement for it? What data will you use to decide that?

Establish a public sector anti-corruption agency.

You say this will change under an FNM government, but you neglect to say how?

You’re fighting a national corruption culture here. What is corrupt is not seen as corruption by an overwhelmingly large number of citizens who regard it as a normal occurrence if you want anything done, in the public or the private sector. Are you implementing psychological tools to change this way of thinking that is so engrained in multiple communities? Over what period of time do you expect it to have success?

Conduct a comprehensive review of police officers’ compensation.

To what end? Do you want to see who is stealing or are you trying to reward them more accurately or regularly? Are some paid too much and others not enough? Is the complaint about overtime legitimate?

Reinstitute term limits for the Commissioner of Police, Commodore of the [Royal Bahamas] Defence Force and the Commissioner of Corrections.

What are the limits? How do you determine them? When will they be effective?

Reorganise the police reserves.

How are they presently organised and how does any change make a difference in fighting crime? What factors will you consider to determine how best to organise them?

Strengthen Defence Force satellite base presence/operations in the northern, central, southern and southeastern Bahamas.

That sounds like the whole country and all islands. Why not just say that? And what are you strengthening them with? Manpower? Technology?

Enforce Marco’s Law inclusive of a Sexual Offenders Register.

Wonderful. Then little Marco will finally have some justice served in his name. But when? How? Especially when you have attorneys fighting for the murderer’s rights above Marco’s? Who will be on the register? How far back will it go - to include offenders from 30 years ago? Who can report to it? Will those persons reporting be guaranteed protection under the law?

Implement aggressive measures to address the trafficking of narcotics, firearms, human trafficking, illegal immigration and poaching.

What measures exist now? How will you make them more aggressive, by picking aggressive people to implement them or by making the measures more extreme? Whose partnership do you have in this effort? Which countries are willing to assist and in what ways? Have any agreements been made? If not, when will they be made and with whom?

Establish a forensic crime lab with an independent director.

More money. Where will the funds come from? Which budget, which year? Who is qualified to be the director? A Bahamian? A person of foreign origin?

Increase efforts on financial and cyber investigations.

Very, very vague. What efforts? Increase how, to what amount from what amount?

Make the school environment safe for students, teachers, staff and guests by placing metal detectors at school entrances and use of CCTVs and professionally trained security officers for reinforcements.

How have metal detectors been proven effective? How is CCTV effective? The police have used CCTV in some locations and it doesn’t seem to add much value for them, so how will CCTV help in schools? You want D-average people and police to be detail-oriented and pay attention to every frame of CCTV? Their attention span has not allowed them to become focused individuals, to the point where you yourself have said they need further training, having included their further training in your crime fighting wishlist. How will the professionally trained security officers help? Where are they coming from? Public or private sector? Are they full-time or part-time? Permanent or temporary?

Provide proper training for law enforcement officers and to foster relationships between the community and churches.

What does this training entail to make it proper? Have they not had proper training to date? Is that the problem? This bit about fostering relationships between communities and churches has been said a thousand times. How many such relationships have been established? How have they been shown to be effective?

There are more questions than answers in this FNM ‘plan’ to fight crime.

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