Police expert urges lawmen to collaborate with the community

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Chairman of the Caribbean Association of Security Professionals (CASP) Oral Reid is urging lawmen to work more closely with the community to better understand how residents perceive crime.
He made the comments during his analysis of the public’s negative response and rejection of the recently released Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda’s crime statistics for 2016.
“This is where consultation and collaboration with non-government organisations (NGOs) in the community becomes critical to being able to identify what is happening at the level of the community,” Reid said.
He said improving the public’s reporting of criminal activity and collaboration with law enforcement will have to be “carefully constructed” by the hierarchy of the police force.
Reid, who is a proponent of community policing initiatives, said if the police force has not yet developed a community policing department and a thrust towards creating community-policing policies then they should consider implementing these proposals.
He, however, said the low incidence of crime in Antigua & Barbuda is “encouraging”.
Meantime, public safety expert, former chairman of the Caricom Police Commissioners and Military heads grouping and former St Kitts and Nevis police commissioner, Dr Celvin “CG” Walwyn has lauded the force for whatever measures they have implemented to keep murders in single digits.
“It’s bad because you have a murder, but it’s better than most of the other islands,” he said.
The Antigua & Barbuda police report on serious crime noted that last year there were eight murders in comparison to five in 2015 and three cases of attempted murder in 2016, up from one in 2015.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)

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