ST JOHN’S – Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer has told regional police commissioners that organized crime has created a great deal of fear, uncertainty and anxiety amongst Caribbean people already having to deal with the uncertainties occasioned by the global economic crisis.
“As regional leaders and heads of law enforcement agencies we all have a responsibility to act and to act decisively to address the problems of crime and security. Robust and prolonged actions are needed to counteract these threats,” Spencer told delegates attending the four-day 26th annual conference of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP).
He said while over the past decade, the ACCP has taken the fight against crime in the region to the door-steps of the criminals themselves, organized crime is not confined to any one particular Caribbean nation.
“It requires us to collaborate on a broad scale and enlist the services of our regional and international partners,” Spencer said, adding that the lessons learned from the impact caused by the terrorist events in the United States on September 11, 2001 “remind us that we are not in the fight alone nor are we immune to the fallout from criminal activities perpetrated on our neighbours in the north or in Europe and even further afield.”
“The region has felt the effects. Our economies have suffered and continue to feel the aftershocks,” he said, welcoming the collaboration with various international law enforcement agencies.
Spencer recalled that regional leaders at their 2001 summit had expressed concern over the new forms of crime and violence that continue to threaten the security of the region.
He said in an effort to address this matter, a Regional Task Force on Crime and Security was established with the ACCP playing an integral role in its final recommendations to the leaders.
He said one of the issues highlighted by the Task Force is that criminals have demonstrated that they are prepared to use the same technologies that were designed to empower law enforcement officers in order “ to create and to build and use them to pose untold economic and security challenges to countries within our region”.
“Criminals are becoming more sophisticated and are utilizing new technologies to commit their offences. For us as political leaders and you as law enforcement officials, this development has added exponentially to the intricacy of the task of law enforcement and security.
“It requires us to make fundamental changes in the way we do business. To do this requires thoughtful transformation to not only keep up but to stay ahead of criminals. This conference can be the avenue to achieving this goal,” Spencer noted.
The prime minister said that while most countries in the region have started implementing the recommendations made in the Report from the Regional Task Force on Crime and Security, governments still have work to do in the sourcing of additional equipment for the building and strengthening of regional databases designed to improve information and intelligence sharing capabilities.
“We are living in extraordinary times for our region. Coupled with devising strategies to counteract the effects of the global economic meltdown, we are faced with criminals becoming more organized and the possibilities of additional security challenges from the recent death of Osama Bin Laden. There is major work to be done and little time to do so.
“As we move forward, we must not only take the fight to the criminals, utilizing modern technology, we must win the war. It will require major investments by governments and dedicated action by law enforcement officials. In this regard, I see a role for the private sector partnering with governments and law enforcement agencies in this war against crime and criminal elements,” Spencer told the regional police chiefs and other delegates. (CMC)
