We can’t continue on this path, says AG

Barbados has recorded 49 homicides so far this year, the highest murder rate in its history, Attorney General Dale Marshall revealed on Wednesday.

“We cannot continue on our current path,” he told the Latin America and Caribbean Security and Justice Summit, expressing alarm at the figure and urging regional leaders to adopt innovative, knowledge-driven approaches to combat rising violence and transnational organised crime.

He said: “This statistic is alarming but even more concerning is that 16 of these homicides were the result of stabbings and bludgeonings, suggesting underlying mental issues or challenges with conflict resolution and anger management.”

The attorney general further called for abandoning outdated crime-fighting methods and shifting to more sophisticated, data-driven strategies, stressing that addressing crime must become a more advanced and collaborative effort.

He warned that traditional methods are no longer effective in addressing crime, noting what he deemed the “persistence and growth” of illicit arms trafficking, human trafficking, and drug trafficking in the region.

“We cannot continue to use the approaches that we used even five years ago as they seem to be yielding diminishing returns,” he declared. “Addressing crime must become a highly sophisticated venture, and member states must devote the resources to achieve this level of response.”

Marshall stressed that regional collaboration and innovation are critical to tackling transnational organised crime, calling for the formulation of a “common plan of action to address the issues of rising crime in our states and to stifle the creeping influence of transnational organised crime”.

He also noted the importance of addressing the social determinants of crime, mentioning that Barbados has implemented programmes targeting at-risk families.

However, he acknowledged that more needs to be done: “We must be able to improve the environments in which our children live and learn and create more opportunities for them when they become adults. Citizen security must be a reality and not just a concept that bears no relation to people’s lives.”

He added: “We need new knowledge-based products, new data-driven methods for better targeting of responses, and significantly better results.” (SM)