I DON’T ALWAYS AGREE with what the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) does, and I don’t always agree with the conduct of individual members of the force. For years now, for example, I have been puzzled by the way crime statistics are compiled and/or presented to the public each year.
I am yet to figure out how come we still have crime in this country when, except for a few specific years when there were spikes, it seems that annually at least three commissioners have been reporting declines in crime. Something in the back of my head seems to whisper: “But if crime going down all the time by now we should have an almost crime free society.”
But we know that’s not the case.
My bewilderment notwithstanding, there are still many things about the RBPF that make me glad to be a Bajan and to be living on this island. And while thinking on this subject over the weekend the issue of murder filled my thoughts. In the back of my head I held this belief that almost every murder committed here this year had been solved.
Instantly I started shaking my head in silent praise of the men and women of the Criminal Investigations Department of the force. Whatever may be the questions about the methods of some, the point is that based on results they are doing an excellent job. I thought, they must be some really smart investigators.
Also swirling around in my head was that I don’t know of any 2016 brand name police detectives who are out there driving fear into the hearts of would-be criminals. There’s no longer a Dirty Harry, Track Suit Top or Rap Browne. The legendary Lion Man, Sylvester Williams, Jasper Watson, Keith Whittaker and the likes have long hung up their boots. Respected crime sleuths like Lybron Sobers, Sylvester Louis and John Annell are still around but are administrators.
Yet the results are exceptional. Of the 17 murders so far this year, 15 have been “solved”, and my sources suggest charges could be lodged in a 16th any day now. That’s a clear-up rate of almost 90 per cent. Compare this with Jamaica, where more than 1 000 murders are recorded annually and the clear-up rate averages 29 per cent; or Trinidad with more than 400 killings and a solution rate of 15 per cent.
I was smiling brightly about this when I happened upon a conversation relating to the most recent murder here, that of Kevin Brewster, who was shot in the head last week in Jackson. The discussants, speaking long before the police charged anyone, provided all manner of “details” about the events leading up to the killing, even identifying aggressors and who suffered at their hands before the actual killing.
This sent me into a different mode of reflection. I was now thinking, maybe the clear-up rate is so high, not because the police are so smart, but because the criminals are so dumb. I’m not discounting the hard work of investigators because as a journalist I know there is a big difference between truth and provable truth. Evidence still has to be meticulously collected according to rules and presented in a manner that supports any charges, but some of these criminals are so dumb they could have written in bold letters at the scene “John Browne was here; my number is 161-0000, call me and I’ll confess.”
Within urban Barbados and along the South Coast there are so many cameras you would think that people who contemplate mischief would think twice. There are so many homes in this country with security cameras around them it is hard to move around without your image being captured.
According to estimates there are more than two smartphones for every person in Barbados – that’s more than half a million phones, which means that like it or not if you spit, someone is probably going to record it.
Now add to that the clear evidence that Bajans are far more “malicious” than they have ever been, so there is always someone minding your business, and while they might not talk to the police, they will share it with someone who will, or who has no reservations about posting it on Facebook.
Be smart people, if you want to kill, do it in some other country because around here your chances of getting away with it are very slim.
