Upset by public comments that there is a need for outside law enforcement personnel to be brought to the island to help deal with crime, Commissioner of Police, Rudolph Proctor, has asserted that: “Anguilla’s problems need an Anguillian solution.”
He was at the time speaking to reporters on Wednesday, this week, in connection with certain firearm and other violent incidents on the island.“We do not need a temporary fix,” he went on. “It does not need a bandage approach. You have the information, come to the Police Force and give that information. In the last 24 hours we have been working tirelessly to find the criminal. At a time when a murder had taken place, my cell block in the Police Station was filled to capacity with persons we had arrested within that period of time for firearm-related offences.
“We have ongoing operations with our Task Force which are phased and will go to different levels. They are arresting people…What we will not do, as some people are trying to indicate to us, is to further disrupt the lives of every Anguillian in such a fashion that we would be a hated agency. Therefore our approach is phased and targeting those individuals who are disrupting our country. All we are saying to our public, our Government officials, and all those persons who have an interest in seeing this country come to peace and quiet, is to give us their support.
“If you bring a person [police officer] fromTimbuktu, he needs information, human intelligence. My experience as a Police Officer tells me that. If you think that saving information for two and three years, though we can use information from that long, to solve crimes,I think it adds to the tension when we keep it back for so long.”
Mr. Proctor continued: “There has been an effort, on the part of the Police, to make sure that these rival groups in our community, that are responsible for these crimes, are separated. We are almost at every entertainment spot covertly or overtly…While we have been working with other agencies here and outside of this country, to try to suppress firearms at our borders, where is the discussion on the fact that firearms were coming into places within our country over which we have no controlas a Police Force?
“We are not flustered … by some of the comments people are making about some of us. We will continue to do our job professionally…
“I will say this on behalf of myself and my officers: nothing that is happening here is beyond our capability. We do recognise that we have resource needs and we are going to address that. They are not cheap. Since I took responsibility for this organisation, we are operating under very tight austerity measures that, may be, some other agencies anywhere in the world, dealing with this type of criminality, would not be operating under.
“I am leaving that message with you, and the Anguillian community, that we have to focus on dealing with our issues as a people, and supporting the organisation that is taking a lead on those issues.”
