THE public has been singled out as having played a major role in keeping the murder and homicide rates down to the current zero level so far this year, an unprecedented occurrence dating back several years.
“I am a veteran of 29 years of service in the police force and I do not recall the force having a zero, record for murders and homicides for this period in the year”, the Officer in charge of the police force, Deputy Commissioner Errol Alexander said.
Saint Lucia has yet to record a single homicide or murder for 2015, a feat Alexander and the rest of the police hierarchy hope will remain so for the remainder of the year.
Alexander also credited the members of the Executive of the Police Force for their ability to steer the Force’s planning and strategic framework which enabled all departments of the organization to perform at their best.
“Credit goes to the hard working members of the police department and its executive because despite the uncertainties being rumoured that are contained in theimpending IMPACS report they are working hard to maintain the objectives of the police force. We cannot lose our objectives which are the maintenance of law and order, among other things including section five of the Police Act that speaks to the functions of the police force,” Alexander said.
For the same January-February period last year the island recorded six homicides. In 2013 the number was three. Six homicides were recorded in 2012, while 13 were recorded in 2011.
Alexander noted that although the police department had no control over murders and homicides due to the various variables that are involved in their occurrences, the strategies police officers developed over time to combat criminal activities, and the goals they were working to achieve, had all worked and were responsible in part for the zero rate of murders and homicides to date.
According to Alexander some of the strategies of the police department involved community policing which assists citizens in dealing with certain situations confronting them.
He added that aside from town hall lectures throughout the various communities, police officers interacted with schools so they could talk with delinquent students. Those same police officers serve as mentors to those delinquent students.
He pointed to intelligence led policing as also helping in keeping major criminal activities down.
“Intelligence led policing helps us maximize our resources; it directs us to the nest of criminal activity and the hot spots in the communities,” Alexander said.
He added that the police department is constantly looking at ways to improve, as a results oriented-organization.
“Soon we will be having a retreat to look at our 2014/2015 performance and prepare the way for 2015/2016,” he said.
“We have implemented various strategies to improve our targets in the months and years ahead,” Alexander added.
This an interesting statistic and fortells a grim reality of St. Lucian society.
This good unprescedented murder rate is actually indicative of a fundamentally corrupt society.
Has anyone asked why in January and February 2015 the murder rate is suddenly 0 when in the last 15 years on average it would have been between 6 and 10 on the way to the usual 30+ murders annually?
What has happened to suddenly have this statistic jump up at us? Has the policing and internal security miraculously got better? Then why the sudden jump in rapes?
Has our society suddenly developed a good moral backbone? Hardly likely!
Has the drug culture suddenly become more peaceful and understanding? Give me a break!
The answer lies in what is happening on Sunday when we will finally hear something about the report on extra judicial killings that occurred in 2011 or the IMPACS report. The answer lies in the heat St. Lucia has received from the Gobat execution at Cap Estate last year.
The grim reality is that St. Lucian society is so corrupt that elements of the security officialdom and political leadership and the drug underworld have colluded to ensure that there are no murders in this period because of the heat St. Lucia has received both from the extra judicial killing and the Gobat murder. With the Inpacs report due out tomorrow there are security and political entities who want to be able to say “see our internal security is working, we are all good guys protecting our citizens and getting the job done”.
With the heat from the Americans and the English from the extra judicial killings and the Gobat execution the corrupt elements in the internal security and political class have worked to keep things quiet and give the impression that all is quiet on the Western Front.
Rather than being an indication of a society suddenly gone peaceful against the norm and for no apparent reason ,this is an indication of a society so fundamentally and deeply corrupt with linkages between elements of the security, political, drug and upper socio economic class that a clean stop can be called to murders simply to cover up for the corruption and take the heat off from the IMPACS report and the inability to do anything about the Gobat execution.
What a sad corrupt country we have become.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDBoqg1RcfU