Police chief endorses new Kadooment route

Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce has backed retaining the new Grand Kadooment route introduced this year, citing improved safety and security manageme2nt.

The police chief’s endorsement is likely to carry significant weight in the decision-making processes for Crop Over 2025.  But while expressing a preference for the new route, Boyce indicated openness to alternatives, mentioning that a trial route from Bridgetown to Spring Garden Highway “can work for us, and we would work with it also”.

Speaking to Barbados TODAY, Boyce highlighted the benefits of the revised route, which began at the Bridgetown Helipad and concluded at Kensington Oval. “I would say it helped tremendously for us,” Boyce said, emphasising the spacious nature of key locations such as the heliport and Queen’s Park.

The new route took the costume bands from the heliport and proceeded along Hincks Street, turning right at Pelican Village, onto Harbour Road, along President Kennedy Drive, through Eagle Hall, left on to Black Rock, then the Mighty Grynner Highway and climaxing at Kensington Oval.

The police chief explained that the new route’s layout provided ample room for manoeuvre, particularly in emergency situations. “It is not cramped,” Boyce noted, “it gives you enough room to manoeuvre. In case of emergency, you can operate with a full level of confidence.”

This endorsement comes in the wake of last year’s shooting incident during Grand Kadooment on Black Rock, which Boyce acknowledged remains “vividly in people’s minds”. However, he stressed the desire to “put that behind us and move forward”.

Reflecting on the entire Crop Over festival, Boyce reported a successful policing operation conducted in collaboration with The Barbados Defence Force. He highlighted the absence of “serious or major incidents throughout the festival”, despite the high attendance at numerous events.

The commissioner touted the effectiveness of the policing strategy: “I am happy to report that most importantly the operations of our policing strategy worked tremendously well in achieving that goal: that is, safety first for one and all.”

Boyce also commended the country’s ability to host the festival safely, noting the presence of numerous visitors.

There were no serious or major incidents throughout the festival, the commissioner reported, “when one considers the thousands of persons that would have attended these events. We, as a country on the whole, should congratulate ourselves on hosting such an international festival, bearing in mind that we have a number of visitors who attended this festival”.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb