The police force has come under fire for allegedly being selective in their investigations into threats made against high profile people.
This criticism arose after the authorities announced an investigation into an assassination threat against Prime Minister Gaston Browne.
Speaking on the Observer AM show, Police Commissioner Atlee Rodney addressed claims that the police had failed to similarly investigate threats made against an opposition member.
Rodney stated he was unaware of any filed reports on the latter, but noted that some cases are not publicised to the same extent as others.
“Prominent persons … might make the news, some persons might not make the news, but those reports are investigated. Reports made along the Cybercrime Act, the Electronic Crime Act, they are being investigated and it is unfortunate where sometimes the ordinary man on the street’s report is not in the news,” he said.
The Commissioner emphasised that while the police can initiate investigations without a formal report, having a complainant significantly aids the process.
“You can still investigate the matter, but obviously where there is a virtual complainant, it is much better that person step forward because you might use your resources, investigate the matter … find the perpetrator and then when I call you, you say it didn’t mean nothing to me.”
Meanwhile, Rodney also called for increased community involvement in fighting crime.
“I want to make an appeal to some of those groups that became dormant to come back on stream. As a young police officer, we didn’t have the technology that is at our disposal now. We didn’t have cellular phones. We didn’t have smartphones with all those features. We did not have cameras at our homes.
“Now that we have that technology to assist us, I think groups should be close-knitted and we have made ourselves available to several groups. We have persons who are trained in setting neighbourhood watches and we are saying if a community wants to set up one, reach out to us.
“We will meet with you, we will give you the tips. Because I know Antigua have quite a few good ones and they are still active and I want to commend them for the effort because they prevent a lot of crimes and they have assisted us in detecting crimes,” he added.