Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs, Adriel Brathwaite.
Yes Barbados has crime, but we are not at the stage where we need to panic.
That’s the view of Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs, Adriel Brathwaite. He gave the assurance as he piloted the Police (Amendment) Bill in the House of Assembly yesterday morning, as he noted that Barbados has had and continues to have a relatively low rate of crime, with the country’s murder rate which stands at 26 to 27 per annum equating to 9.7 per 100,000, remaining one of, if not the lowest in the region.
He admitted that while over the last couple of years, because of the advent of new media, the perception is that crime is at an all time high, that is not so. He said that based on the statistics available and the reports from the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) and other actors in the criminal justice system, he feels confident that though there are some areas of concern, crime is not at a runaway stage.
The Attorney General’s comments came as he acknowledged that among the factors contributing to crime are high youth unemployment, a breakdown in family relationships, inadequate housing, drug abuse and gangs. He made the point while contending that the level of violent crime in recent times has been driven by illegal drugs and guns. With that in mind, he maintained that contrary to what some believe, there is a strategy in place to address crime in this country.
“It is uncharitable to say the least, for anyone to believe that in fact that the Royal Barbados Police Force and or the Office of the Attorney General are crafting legislation on a whim, or every Monday wake up and decide we are going to work and don’t know what we are doing because there is no policy, there is no objective in place,” he said.
He noted then that the amendment to Act seeks to address the challenges the country is experiencing with crime, providing the police with additional legal resources to ensure they are better able to discharge their responsibilities. One of those measures will allow them to prevent unauthorised persons from coming onto crime scenes and accidents scenes. He made the comments while noting that nowadays persons are getting close to scenes to take pictures and are sometimes getting in the way of the first responders, preventing them from doing their jobs. The police, he added, must therefore have the power to cordon off an area so that they properly carry out investigations as required.
“We want to be able to move to a situation where in those cases the police is able to go onto the sites whether it be a mass casualty by way of an accident, or by way of a murder or something like that, that they are able to go onto the site and not only take charge as they do now, but in fact that there are stiff penalties attached to anyone who refuses to comply with the directions of the Royal Barbados Police Force,” he added.
(JRT)