The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

FINALLY, the Minister of National Security, the Hon. Dr Bernard Nottage has broken his silence on the recent crime spree in New Providence. But will his rant in the House of Assembly cause a crime solution to be effected?

Dr Nottage suggested the police would employ the same old crime fighting strategies. He said that the police will increase saturation patrols in crime hotspot areas and there will be more road blocks.

Of particular note, he said that they will initiate a gang unit in the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF). Now this is astonishing. The fact that a gang unit does not exist in the RBPF in 2017 is an incredible development and I am inclined to believe that the Minister misspoke. What have our gate keepers been doing the last few years? This is truly indicative of how backward some of our crime fighting strategies are given that gang violence has been making major headlines at least for the last decade.

Additionally, Dr Nottage said that members of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) will be ordered to assist the police as it relates to fighting crime on the streets. This is a big mistake and will not net the results the Minister is looking for. Defence Force Officers assisting the police will only amount to extra bodies on the streets who are not trained to act as peace officers.

Furthermore, RBDF officers will be limited in what they can do because they will be in reactionary mode. They will respond to acts of violence for the most part after a crime has been committed. This is what the police are doing now.

The only way I can see the government employing RBDF officers on the streets is if criminals are outright targeting victims indiscriminately and then you would deploy Defence Force Officers to hunt and shoot vigilantes on the spot. We have not reached this stage as yet.

In my view, the high command of the police force and the Minister of National Security possess the intelligence today to effectively deal with crime. However, our crime problem will not improve because the political will does not exist to fight crime and most of the time, this leaves the police literally holding the bag.

One example of the lack of political will is seen in the 2011 Privy Council’s ruling which states that only the worst of the worst murderers can face the death penalty. Six years later, our legislators have been lazy and they have not defined what the worst of the worst means. As a result, it is literally impossible for courts to effectively enforce the death penalty.

Additionally, the Attorney General’s office is issuing nolle prosequi like the Greater Harvest Commission is giving out hot meals. There have been several high profile cases that the AG’s office has failed to prosecute, even though the police did their due diligence and collected the proper evidence.

Our gatekeepers seemingly are using technology in the crime fight as this is evident by amount of drug arrests made on a continual basis. But they should also maximise the use of technology when it comes to gathering evidence on other criminal activities, specifically murder and other serious crime.

The days when we believe we can just swarm an area with police officers to fight crime are over and this just shows how out of touch our gatekeepers really are.

DEHAVILLAND MOSS

Nassau,

February 20, 2017.