by Anesta Henry
Barbados must build a police force to match the level of crime taking place, including developing an effective social media presence and strategy.
But economist and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Justin Robinson, believes that if police are to play the role they need to play in society, police stations and offices cannot be the dingy old places they currently are. Dr Robinson argued that police need modern facilities equipped with technological equipment and access to the internet to engage society.
“When we experience crime we want the Police to be there for us, but we ignore the fact that they work really in substandard conditions most of the time. We must find the money within our resources to radically improve the physical infrastructure surrounding policing. The Police need to be able as well, along with that, to embrace the new technologies,” he said.
Delivering the featured address at the launch of the book Policing A Dynamic Barbados, authored by retired deputy commissioner of Police of the Royal Barbados Police Force Bertie Hinds, Dr Robinson said that frontline workers’ show of excellence – including police officers – during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that resources should be allocated to ensure that these persons are remunerated.
Dr Robinson, Head of the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, explained that the latest comprehensive study on crime, conducted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2018, showed that Latin America and the Caribbean is the most violent region on earth. He said, additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) has deemed crime and violence in the region to be at epidemic levels.
“Latin America and the Caribbean contain nine percent of the world’s population, but we account for 1/3 of homicide victims, making us the most violent place outside of war zones.
“Sixty per cent of robberies in our region involve some sort of violence and 90 per cent of murders go unresolved. And our prisons are among the most overcrowded in the world, and that’s not our sense of the Caribbean,” Dr Robinson said.
Dr Robinson added that the IDB 2018 comprehensive study also suggested that the cost of crime ranges between 2.5 and three and a half percent of GDP across Latin America, which is a total of US115.3 billion and 171.3 billion when converted to dollars, several times the size of Barbados’ economy.
The economist explained that in Barbados between 1994 when the late Owen Arthur became Prime Minister and 2007 when he was voted out of office, the economy grew by an accumulative 60 per cent, while Trinidad and Tobago’s economy had grown by 114 per cent. He noted that during that same period, the number of intentional homicides had grown by 156 per cent.
“So in a period of record economic growth, we saw a record increase in intentional homicides,” the economist said.
Dr Robinson said he found it intriguing that Hinds delved into the issue of how crime evolved in society as a way of life for sections of society where they are highly organized and sophisticated institutions, where violence is almost a part of doing business.
“I always argue that what we have in the Caribbean and what we are seeing in Barbados are really not murders, they are assassinations. It is really just a part of doing business . . . What we are seeing at this juncture is that dichotomy between a police force versus a service.
“So I think Bertie’s book is important. He raises this critical issue that we need to understand the nature of crime within our society and build a police force of service that can actually deal with the level of crime that we are dealing with at the point in time in society. I am particularly keen on the point he made about the need for community policing, which is clearly a fractional relationship with the Police,” Dr Robinson said.
During the launch which took place at the Coleridge & Parry School last Saturday, Hinds was congratulated by a number of prominent figures, including former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, for a well-written and informative book which is wide ranging in the aspects of policing and the Barbadian society.
Historian, librarian and attorney-at-law Professor Velma Newton who described Hinds as one of the few scholar police officers in the region, spoke to the aspect of domestic violence which the author examines on pages 146 to 152 where readers can receive a better understanding how a suite of legislation, including the Domestic Violence Protection Orders Act, Sexual Offences Act, and the Offences Against Persons Act, has strengthened the hands of police in tackling the issue.
She said the book highlights how police can now provide advice and counselling to victims of domestic violence and enter premises without a warrant to assist anyone in danger, or who have suffered physical injury at the hands of another individual on the premises.
The Regional Director for Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) noted that while Hinds also made mention of the establishment of a Family Conflict and Intervention Unit in 2013, she was pleased to see that he emphasized the importance of the unit to handle family conflict cases.
“Through community mediation, some cases can be settled quickly and at little or no cost to persons who have issues, and it would avoid the expense and times spent in going to court. I really hope that a meaningful contribution to the solution of some conflicts in Barbados can be made by the Family Court Conflict Intervention Unit and the IMPACT Justice Project working together,” she said.
Professor Newton said IMPACT Justice will be purchasing multiple copies of the book to present to commissioners of police in other Caribbean countries in the hope that these commissioners will encourage their police officers, senior and junior, to make the most of education opportunities and to constantly be assessing the delivery of services in the execution of their jobs.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Stuart praised the recommendations Hinds made in the book to better policing in Barbados, particularly the fact that arrangements should be made for retired officers to be re-engaged for specific projects in the Force, including providing mentoring for younger existing officers.
“I can’t disagree with that. In fact I agree with it wholeheartedly. I think that we are too quick to discard people on the basis of what their birth certificate says in Barbados. But the truth is that times have changed and life expectancies have gotten progressively better over time. We have to be careful when we decide that as soon as a man or woman reaches retirement age that he or she has no more value. That is abandoning years of experience and the society is invariably the poorer for it. So I think he is quite fine for recommending that change and I hope that those who have ears to hear will hear it,” Stuart said.
In response, former deputy commissioner Hinds thanked all those who supported his journey in creating history in Barbados and perhaps the Caribbean to produce a scholarly dissertation on basically every aspect of policing Barbados.
Hinds announced that while this publication was an effort to record his legacy, he intended to write at least two more books in the coming years, one of which he said he was well on the way to being penned.
“I feel very proud to know that my superiors have validated this pioneering work,” Hinds said.
Also addressing the audience were former Chief Justice Sir David Simmons, former Commissioner of Police Orville Durant, former Magistrate and Parliamentarian Keith Simmons and principal of Coleridge & Parry, Sonja Goodridge.
anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb
