The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

WITH a sharp decline in homicides compared to last year, National Security Minister Marvin Dames said all law enforcement agencies are working collectively to keep the crime rate down.

He said the public should also soon expect to see increased police presence on the streets with a new crop of police officers to be added to the Royal Bahamas Police Force and more community-based police initiatives in 2019.

Mr Dames made these remarks yesterday while speaking to reporters outside his Mount Moriah constituency office.

He said: “I would certainly like to take this opportunity to commend all law enforcement and that’s not just the Royal Bahamas Police Force but the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, Bahamas Department of Corrections, and although the other ministries are not under my remit even the Departments of Customs and Immigration.

“We have from we started as government we have been preaching this concept of a multi-agency approach to everything especially crime. This country is much too small for us to be policing in silos and so the leaders of these respective agencies have been working in concert and collectively and in partnership together now from since we came into office.”

Mr Dames said his ministry has been seeing positive results, adding in the coming months the public will see more initiatives between the police and the wider community.

“We are actually on a daily basis...we are seeing new neighbourhood watch groups popping up but this time around there is a focus to what we are doing and so we had a conclave about two weeks ago and (we are) planning a conclave for 2019.”

He also said: “Looking at avenues whereby we can continue to work towards bringing a greater level of focus and standardisation to the things we are doing. You’re going to see in 2019 some amazing initiatives between the police and the community. “

Mr Dames added that the focus of the police is to bring a greater degree of scrutiny on prolific offenders and increasing police visibility.

“The government would have provided a new fleet of vehicles and very shortly we would be passing out (graduating), I would say 134 police and fire officers during the month of December. We are excited about that...we have 100 officers that are about to pass out next month and they will go into those communities that are challenged.”

He continued: “You know I often talk about our man power audit so all we are doing is using that as a blue print now and we are populating those police stations based on population density, crime trends and crime levels based on any number of variables. So the public very shortly would begin to see as when you travel, you go places like New York and about on every street corner you see a police vehicle or officer well that’s the concept we are trying to do here in the Bahamas.

“. . . Keeping our eyes on trends, figures and measurements. We feel that we are headed in the right direction and I just want to let you know as well.”

There were 116 murders recorded in 2017.

According to The Tribune’s records, there have been 76 murders so far this year, a decline of about 34 percent.

Mr Dames, Mount Moriah MP, spoke to reporters at a press conference called about an upcoming Mount Moriah Transformers Band performance.

The band participated in Chicago yesterday for a Thanksgiving Day Parade. Station WGN aired the parade live at 9am and noon.

Mr Dames said: “Not too long ago we had the opportunity to watch on WGN - our Mount Moriah Transformers Band was given an invitation more than a year ago to participate in the McDonalds Thanksgiving Parade and today for that group of young people was a very special day and a tremendous experience because they had the opportunity to play in front of millions.

“This is what we are seeking to do...seeking to expose our young people to opportunities not only locally but abroad.

“These young people are now given an opportunity to audition for many groups overseas and hopefully one day they would be able to earn a scholarship to a college or university to further their education. This part of the objection of what we are seeking to achieve here but we are excited.

“Next year there is an invitation to play in Switzerland and we hope by then we would have added to that band so when we do in fact get to Switzerland we will be raising the banner of Mount Moriah and by extension the flag of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas high and that’s the objective.”