The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

WHILE noting that his ministry has embarked on an “aggressive” recruitment exercise to beef up manpower in the law enforcement community, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said plans are underway to recruit even more people to several key agencies under his remit.

They include the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Mr Munroe did not say exactly how many people are being sought.

“We have been with the concurrence of the Minister of Finance, the Prime Minister, able to run an aggressive recruitment,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an opening ceremony for the law enforcement chaplaincy training yesterday.

“Since taking the chair, we have recruited two squads into every law enforcement agency. Currently, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force is gearing up to recruit a squad. BDCS is gearing up to recruit a squad and the police are gearing up to recruit a squad. So, the recruitment continues in order to replace the manpower we lose by attrition and to make up for some of the deficiencies we met in place.”

Plans to beef up manpower in law enforcement comes as the nation continues to see an increase in homicides, with nearly 100 murders recorded so far for the year.

Yesterday, the minister commented on the rising murder count, saying the majority of the country’s homicides continue to be either gang or domestic related.

He said while officials are seeking to clamp down on gang related activities through increased saturation patrols, domestic issues can only be addressed socially.

“You would have seen at the swearing-in of the new commissioner, he spoke about the creation of a firearms task force. All the agencies have committed their membership to those,” he told reporters.

“The causes of homicides still continue to be either gang related for the bigger part or domestically related. The gang related is addressed through the uptake of the saturation patrols through the firearms unit and the domestic results, where people seem to get in arguments or can’t resolve the violence is a matter for us to socially address.”

Mr Munroe continued: “Until we get that in our mind, it will continue to happen. It’s not enough to simply say that crime is up ticking all over the world at the end of the pandemic, as we see in our neighbours to the south in Turks and Caicos. That is not enough, we have to take steps to address the frustration that (was) pent up during the lockdowns and human beings have to take responsibility so if you have an issue with your spouse, if you have an issue with your neighbour, then talk to someone about it.

“Don’t let it get to the point where y’all fighting and killing one another cause that’s the second largest class of homicides that we have.”