The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

POLICE COMMISSIONER Paul Rolle insisted yesterday that overall crime remains down in Abaco, adding police officers “have stepped up their game” to address crime concerns in the community.

“I made a statement about the crime figures in Abaco at the time and when you ask me about it improving, I stand by what I said then,” the police chief told reporters yesterday when asked for an update on the crime statistics for Abaco.

“We have seen an overall improvement on the situation on the ground in Abaco. The issue for Abaco is lack of housing for police officers so we couldn’t put officers on the ground like that but I could tell we have increased the number of officers. The crime situation on Abaco....I think the numbers have levelled off.”

In September, Commissioner Rolle said crime on the island had decreased by 39 percent compared with the statistics in 2019.

His remarks were criticised by the locals who declared that his statistics were “false”, “misleading” and not an actual representation of what’s happening on the ground.

Some observers have even claimed incidents of theft and housebreaking to be an almost daily occurrence for the island and its surrounding cays.

Yesterday, Commissioner Rolle defended the statistics, insisting police reports do not show crime is on the rise in the community.

Asked if he believed the low figures merely reflected that many Abaconians had given up reporting such incidents, he replied: “Listen, I just give you the crime figures of the crime reports and we deal with what I report and that’s the crime reports. I have mandated the officers on every island, including Abaco… but I can assure you that the members of the Royal Bahamas police force have stepped up their game in Abaco.

“The Commissioner has said that and if anybody wants to challenge me with that then let them bring it on. We have worked and we want to continue to work with the residents of Abaco to continue to ensure that everybody in Abaco is safe.”

He continued: “I’ve said that there have been some incidents in Abaco, but you see you’re talking about increase and remember that is the key word. I’m not denying the fact that there were incidents, but when you said ‘increase’. Where did you get that from, because I gave you the facts?

“I cannot say whether or not persons reported crime or not reported, because that’s really not my specialty but I can tell you that if you look, you’re going to get a package shortly and, in that package... Abaco is going to be placed.

“I have the highest respect of the people and the people of Abaco have just as much rights to have police presence on their island as Nassau. A lot of them told me they wanted to see roadblocks and road checks just like how we’re doing in Nassau so, I did that, and, of course, they complained after, but the fact of the matter is I’m satisfied that things have improved overall on the island.”

Yesterday, the Commissioner also issued an appeal to locals living in the community with illegal firearms.

“I still believe that we have some guns on Abaco and I would ask the persons with them to turn them in. Help us with that. Tell the people in Abaco to bring the guns so we can get some of those illegal guns out of Abaco,” he said.