A shortage in resources is not stopping the police from working around the clock to fight the spike in crime.
However, Superintendent Margaret Stephen who is in charge of the Bridgetown Division, told members of the media this morning that the officers who often go above and beyond the call of duty, need members of the public to work with them through providing any available information that may aid in crime prevention.
Superintendent Stephen said, crime was still affecting the island, but noted that the members of the force are trying their best, and doing whatever possible, to keep the situation under control.
“Police officers have come together and we have developed plans and strategies overtime which will enable us to deal with the crime as it comes. You find officers, even though they are tired because of long working hours, they are still giving of their best. Let’s take for example the Buju concert that just went, the officers throughout the island responded so magnificently. We had enough coverage for that concert and for persons in the island,” she said.
The superintendent who was speaking to the media following a presentation at Central Police Station this morning, said members of the public must feel comforted that the police have been “doing a lot more than we have the resources to do, and we are doing it in my mind, and in a lot of other peoples mind, successfully”.
She said that public information was an important instrument in fighting crime.
“This is very important. We have reached the stage where we know how to treat information, and I am encouraging the public that without your help, we will always have difficulties. You need, when you see something, to say something. We also need to be each other’s keeper,” Superintendent Stephen said.
“This is not the time when you can say some person is officious or malicious, because what happens to me today definitely could happen to you tomorrow, given the circumstances and given the world in which we live.
“So apart from the shortages, I don’t think that we are getting enough information in a timely manner to help us prevent crime. Our biggest problem is the actual preventing of crime. We definitely cannot end all crime, but timely information would help us to be able to respond in a more aggressive way,”
she added.
