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Don’t test us . . . AG warns criminals police are on their heels

by Sandy Deane
4 min read
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Attorney General Dale Marshall says the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) will stop at nothing to bring down the murder rate as the country heads into the New Year.

With a record 48 murders just two weeks shy of 2020, he stayed clear of making any predictions about whether the number of killings would rise or fall, but warned criminals not to “test the resolve” of police.

“We have put a lot of pressure on the criminal element in the last year and that is going to intensify into 2020. We are not letting up and I again say to the criminal element, 2019 is at an end but our efforts will continue into 2020 and beyond. Do not test our resolve because we are adamant that 100 or 150 criminals will not hold all of Barbados to ransom.

“There is absolutely nowhere in the world where a population can sit back and allow a few criminals to shut down our country; it will not happen,” Marshall declared.

The Attorney General lamented that gun violence has claimed dozens of lives, acknowledging the recent spike over the last few weeks, with the latest fatal shooting being that of  27-year-old Rondell Alexander at 1st Avenue, Gills, Gap, Eagle Hall, St Michael last Friday night.

However, he sought to reassure Barbadians that police were sparing no effort to arrest the scourge, and he gave the RBPF high marks for its efforts.

“Remember at the start of the year it seemed to be skyrocketing, and through a lot of hard work, a lot of hard investigation and so on, we were able to quell much of that. I am satisfied that the efforts of the Royal Barbados Police Force have borne fruit and will continue to bear fruit. I hope that we will be able to get our murder rate back down….Any murder is one too many,” he told reporters at the Grantley Adams Memorial School where he was hosting a Senior Citizens Luncheon.

Marshall admitted that the 1, 250-man force was still short some 250 officers, but he fended off questions about whether he was prepared to reach out to the Regional Security System (RSS) to provide support.

“I don’t think that we are that stage that we need to consider it,” he said, while noting that the RSS can provide support as seen in instances such as the recent deployment of Barbadian officers and Defence Force personnel to Dominica during general elections.

“So, indirectly, it is not unknown to us to have foreign officers working with us, but in terms of a recruitment programme [involving the RSS] that is not a matter that is on the cards currently.”

The Attorney General said his office was actively looking into how to better use the resources of the Force by reducing or eliminating the use of officers in non-essential areas.

In this regard, he signalled that police could soon have little to do with investigating minor accidents.

“Things like that are front of mind for the Attorney General and I am prepared to ask the Police Commissioner to bring me a proposal to decide which traffic accidents we are going to go to. Obviously you will go to very serious accidents; obviously you will go where there is a fatality. But in many places of the world, police do not go to traffic accidents, those are matters for insurance companies because there is very little reason, generally, for a police officer to investigate a true accident,” Marshall said.

In addition, he said police resources currently in use at the office of the Police Certificate of Character could be otherwise deployed.

“Six police officers man the Police [Certificate of] Character office. That has to be a thing of the past, so we are going to be almost completely computerizing the Police [Certificate of] Character Office to deliver a speedy, efficient service to Barbadians at a minimum cost.

“You don’t need a police officer to check records to certify that an individual has been convicted or not. We don’t even need a civilian to do that; technology can do that,” he said.
sandydeane@barbadostoday.bb

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