By DENISE MAYCOCK
Tribune Freeport Reporter
dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
WITH more than 80 neighbourhood watch groups in New Providence, the Royal Bahamas Police Force has witnessed much success in its fight against crime and restoring peace in communities, according to Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Stephen Dean.
Senior ACP Dean reported that police were recently able to find a missing 12-year-old girl in a matter of days after providing the information to the various neighbourhood watch groups.
“This thing is so powerful, and there are so many success stories,” the senior police officer told graduates completing the National Neighbourhood Watch Council (NNWC) training programme in Grand Bahama this week.
He stressed that the best defence against crime is not the technology that police invest in, but rather the citizens who are the eyes and ears in their communities.
“Just in New Providence the other day we had a missing 12-year-old girl we could not find for three to four weeks - could not find her. We put it out in the neighbourhood groups, and in a couple of days someone in the neighbourhood watch group spotted the girl going in a house, and we were able to find her and resolve that whole situation,” he said.
He noted that police have also recovered a lot of stolen cars and property due to the programme.
Senior ACP Dean said the neighbourhood watch programme is experiencing a groundswell in New Providence. “When it first started, we identified 10 groups that were in existence for years. Today, we have just over 80 groups,” he said.
He also noted that some 15 groups have been started in Grand Bahama, and two groups have been formed in Abaco.
“We intend to go Abaco, Exuma, and most of the populated islands to establish NW groups,” he added.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 8 months ago
While neighborhood watch groups have had some success, the same cannot be said of those neighbourhoods that simply hire security personnel rather than use actual residents of the neighbourhood to do the watching, especially at night.
There have been way too many instances where hired security personnel, including ex-police officers, have actually resulted in certain neighbourhoods experiencing even more crime than they would otherwise have had. You can probably trust neighbours whom you know well, but hired outside security personnel are an altogether different kind of risk. You could in fact be inviting criminals under the guise of security personnel into your neighbourhood. Besides once the police know you have a neighbourhood watch or hired security personnel, they are less inclined to assign their own limited resources to your neighbourhood areas.
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