Police Commissioner, Rudolph Proctor, reporting on the progress of crime detection in Anguilla, has commended his investigating officers for the work they have been doing with respect to the murder cases and other criminal matters on the island.
“I have said to you, the general public, with those responsible for the Police Force, and the Government authorities, that I have every confidence in the men and women under my command that we can handle the issues here,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, there are some people in our community who are suggesting differently…
“All we have been doing in our investigations is appealing to the persons who witnessed crimes to share that information. Apart from commending them, I would also like to salute those members of the public who are sharing information with us in our investigations [in relation to the murder of JordelGumbs].
“At the same time, we are appealing to those witnesses who are still on the fence in relation to the Gustave murder to come forward to share that information. As I said before, that murder relating to Gustave, based on how many people were there, and would have seen that murder, had they come to the Police we could have solved that murder in twenty-four hours. I still maintain that.”
Mr. Proctor, responding to calls from the public to bring in Police from outside the island, said it was baseless to rush to ask for that assistance without first identifying what help was needed. “I have said before, we have the investigative capacity to deal with this,” he continued. “Let me give you some statistics so that the general public and you, the press, would understand. Between 2000 and 2012 this country experienced 20 persons who died as a result of violent acts. Of those incidents, 13 persons were convicted…This [is] just to give you an illustration of the clear up rate, because there is that perception out there that the Police are not solving any crimes.
“Apart from those 13, there are 4 cases where the Police Force came very close [to solving]. All we needed was for the persons who witnessed those crimes to give us the evidence that would prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the suspects we had committed those crimes.”
