by Linda Straker
- Call for citizens to report criminal observations to the police
- New Year has already brought some difficulties for the police
- 84 sexual crimes cases in current high court assizes
Edvin Martin, Acting Commissioner of Police, believes that personal precaution mixed with community efforts can assist in reducing crimes. He has called for citizens to become part of the police force crime-fighting strategy by reporting criminal observations to the police.
“We cannot be successful as an organisation in tackling and addressing these threats without the support of our community and of course divine intervention from God, but from you as a community, I want to say that we should look to your cooperation and your taking responsibility for your own personal security in making sure that you and your family do not become victims of crime,” Martin said while giving remarks during the first 2020 quarterly church service of the force.
In his remarks, which were broadcast live via the church’s Facebook page, Martin told the congregation that the New Year has already brought some difficulties for the police. “The start of 2020 has been filled with many challenges already. We have already seen the first road fatality, we have seen the first homicide of a 16-year-old girl child in what I will describe as gruesome circumstances, we have seen a number of fires that have affected a number of homes and businesses being reduced to mere ashes in a matter of hours and in some cases mere minutes.”
“Congregation, while we have seen many successes in 2019, such as the contraction in some major categories of crime notwithstanding that we still have some major challenge,” he said, pointing out that sexual violence crimes continue to be a challenge, not just for the police force but for every community.
“While we have seen contractions in the major category or in the category harm offences, we have seen one category, that of murders, move from 12 to 16. So that area is of concern to us,” Martin said, expressing his concern about the increasing number of homicides.
“I am deeply depressed by the fact when homicides emanated from domestic violence and when it results as death behind family and friends, we need to take stock of family strengthening and how the community can better work with us in reducing these instances in 2020,” he said. Martin confirmed that sexual crimes form 84 cases of a total of 181 cases in the current high court assizes.
Many of the victims of sexual crimes are under the age of 16.
Re Sexual Crimes (84) the Community must be accessed as Agt. COP says ….. many of these sexual crimes occured under the noses or with the support of parents who tend to ignore or accept the “sexual crime symptoms”.
In 2020 the RGPF should create an “Investigative Unit” which would look into the culpabality of parents in these sex-crimes.
Serious charges of “Endangering the life of a minor” / “Deriliction of Parental Duties” should be brought against parents of minors whose children are the subject of these sex crimes.
This will involve the Community in serious Parenting and cut down on this scourge.
Stop allowing all these people from different Carribbean countries come into the country without no proper criminal background check, these people from the other Caribbean countries are criminal, stop this law regarding anyone from any Carribbean country can come and live without no proper criminal check, Foolish.