War on crime will take multi-dimensional approach, says Bahamas minister
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| Published on Friday, June 1, 2007 |
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NASSAU, Bahamas (BIS): Bahamas Minister of National Security 'Tommy' Turnquest said this week that crime is the “single most important” challenge facing the Caribbean region and that governments, citizens and law enforcement officials must work together to arrest this “scourge of crime” as it can have a profound affect on regional economies.
Turnquest said increasing incidences of crime, the heinous nature of some criminal acts, a growing culture of lawlessness and anti-social behavior and a gripping fear of crime are now a reality among regional jurisdictions.
He said effective strategies in the war on crime require the development of an anti-crime master plan, characterized by inter-agency planning and execution and also the active participation and declared ownership on the part of the public.
The Minister reiterated his government’s resolve to “do the necessary to ensure the capacity and capability of the Royal Bahamas Police Force to carry out its mandate to protect Bahamian citizens, other residents and visitors to our country.”
Addressing delegates attending the final day of the 22nd Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP), Turnquest said the specter of crime “pervades our countries and our region.”
“We need to arrest and reverse this trend immediately,” Turnquest said. “We need to do this for ourselves, our children and for generations to come.”
Turnquest said that according to a recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Latin American and the Caribbean Region of the World Bank entitled “Crime, Violence and Development: Trends, Costs and Policy Options in the Caribbean”, murder rates in the Caribbean are higher than for any other area in the world and are on the rise.
The report, Turnquest said, also showed that assault rates are significantly above the world’s average and that violence against women affects a “significant percentage of Caribbean women.”
The Minister said the report also concluded that beyond the direct effect on victims, crime and violence inflict widespread costs, generating a climate of fear for all citizens and diminishing economic growth.
Turnquest said governments have “long recognized” that crime is multi-dimensional in scope and nature.
“Effective strategies require the development of anti-crime master plans, characterized by inter-agency planning and execution and also the active participation and declared ownership on the part of the public,” he said.
“Our societies, our traditional way of life, our character, our ethos and that which have defined us for centuries as a peaceful, calm, tolerant, fun-loving, law-abiding and God-fearing people are under attack.
“Trans-border criminal acts such as drugs and firearms trafficking, the trafficking of migrants, poaching and terrorism continue to trigger local criminal behavior and wreak havoc on our streets,” Turnquest added.
He said drug trafficking is perhaps the single-most significant contributor to the crime problem as it is accompanied by an increase in the availability of firearms and acts of violence which have an “adverse impact” on value systems and a corrupting influence on societal institutions.
“Drug traffickers and other organized criminals have no regard for national borders,” Turnquest said. “Their mode of operation is to cooperate with whomever they can to get their product to its lucrative destination and then they cooperate with whomever they need to get their profits back to them.
“We need to learn from them. Not be like them, but to learn from them. We are the good guys! Let us make it easier to cooperate with each other; to share information and intelligence and to do what we have to do, in the context of the law, to bring the bad guys to justice,” he added.
Turnquest said there is also “the nagging issue” of illegal immigration which impacts some regional countries more than others.
He said The Bahamas is faced with tremendous social and financial challenges because of this issue and is “compelled to urgently develop a comprehensive, coherent and sustaining solution.”
“The Caribbean sub-region occupies an important geo-strategic position. We occupy a major transit area for drugs, migrants and firearms and since 9/11 we have been challenged by the threat of global terrorism,” Turnquest said.
“In the future, we must explore the feasibility of establishing bi-lateral law enforcement relations with ourselves, particularly where our interests suggest the need for such an instrument,” the Minister added.
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