The three public consultations at East, End, The Valley and West End on the Police Plan for Anguilla, though not very well attended, nevertheless provided very useful response and suggestions. This is according to Commissioner Mr. Paul Morrison.
“In terms of getting an opinion from a broad cross-section of the public, some resounding themes came through,” Mr. Morrison told The Anguillian. “Everybody spoke about having a police officer in their district; having more police stations; and wanted to see more officers stopping and talking. We are glad to be having those debates because, the truth is, that, with our numbers, to have more police stations is probably unrealistic. It affects your response capabilities and also we have a wide range of other duties…so to spread those even thinner would not be a good solution. However, we agreed that our patrol patterns…need to be redefined. So we need to be putting our officers where the most risks are.”
The Police Commissioner further said: “If you are living in an area where there have been some recent spates of crime, or the public has expressed a vulnerability of a particular issue, then you would expect the [police] visibility in those areas to be increased. We would probably be policing more towards threat and risk than to the general need to be visible on every street corner because that’s not possible. In order for that to take place we agree that there needs to be some shared spaces where police officers can stop during their patrols so that they do not always have to come back to The Valley. This would not necessarily be a fully-functioning police station but some area where the patrol can call in, and update their pocketbooks and report. They can do it at those locations rather than ventually come back to The Valley which I think is one of our weaknesses at the moment.”
Speaking more about police mobility, Mr. Morrison continued: “What we are going to do for community policing is that each of the villages will be assigned a group of officers under a sergeant…That will allow sergeants to make links with the local community so that where there are issues and problems they can be considered and addressed. This doesn’t mean that that particular section will always be on patrol there, but they will have a responsibility for looking after that area and the problems within that area…More importantly, they will build relationships with the community and will be able to hold their own community level briefings.”
The Police Commissioner praised PAVE (Partners in Violence Eradication, a private/public sector initiative) and DARE (Drugs and Alcohol Awareness Reduction and Education, a police initiative) for their efforts in distracting and protecting young people from criminality. He regretted that “we have no system to MONITOR high-risk offenders and high-risk victims in a coordinated fashion.” He gave this example: “If a serial burglar is released from prison and you see an increase in burglaries, would you be surprised? The answer to that should be ‘no’ because of what needs to be done to prevent that taking place and to monitor it. The same could be said about sex offenders and others who may be at risk. So there is a need to look at what multi-agency public protection arrangements we can come to with our partners with whom we work: health, the prison, education as examples. In that way we will be able to manage high-risk individuals and high-risk victims in society.”
Mr. Morrison said that during the consultations concern was expressed about public trust in the police and the officers not being as discreet and confidential as they should when dealing with the public. He went on: “At some point, if we have to move forward, the public will have to trust the police and that might take some time to repair. My whole philosophy is built around trust in us, and us not betraying that trust; and if we do, then we will have to take action against those who do those practices. We spoke to officers about that. Trust is a big issue. We also spoke about delegation of authority, developing staff and leadership… If we are to develop leaders in the future, they have to accept that they have to take responsibility and accountability much earlier in the service.”
Commissioner Morrison expressed gratitude to all who permitted him to hold the public consultations at their premises; those who attended; and those who provided their views, comments and suggestions. He promised that the Anguilla Policing Plan will be published in due course.
