From left to right: Stephen Lashley, Minister of Culture; William E Yearwood, Acting Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Barbados Police Force; and Inspector Wayne Archer at the final update for CARIFESTA XIII.
“The force is doing all that is possible to provide a safe environment for CARIFESTA”, this was the word coming from William E Yearwood, Acting Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Barbados Police Force. He was speaking at the Ministry of Culture in Sky Mall for the final update for Carifesta XIII that will be held in Barbados from August 17-27, 2017.
Yearwood indicated, “Certainly at this time there is concern about our country in terms of incidents we have had recently, but the force stands ready to provide the necessary security for any person coming to our island state, and for wider Barbados in general. We have our plans in respect to policing Carifesta. Each venue has been visited and we have come up with our security plan.
“I want to reassure all members of the public and those who are visiting, that our island state remains a stable environment generally and there is no need for high fear in relation to coming to our island. Generally we have been managing our crime level and we are doing whatever is necessary to keep our island state safe.”
He added, “We are asking members of the public to be on your best behaviour. This is an occasion where we want to market our island state. Each venue will be policed with respect to the assessments we have carried out. We have looked at the layout of each venue and the necessary security will be in place.”
Inspector Wayne Archer also stated that the mission is to keep all persons involved in this festival safe, “We intend to provide protection for those Heads of Governments, VIP… we intend to maintain public safety within respective venues and areas that the Carifesta festival will be held and this also includes wider Barbados. Crowd management, traffic management and incident response will be critical.” (NB)