Good evening everyone. I am pleased to be here with you tonight to deliver this radio address during the very popular Royal Anguilla Police Force’s Police Week. It is an absolute pleasure to be celebrating the 50 years of service that the RAPF has given to the people of Anguilla.
I want to start by wishing everyone who is listening a Happy New Year and by thanking all the RAPF officers and support staff, both past and present, for your extraordinary work over the past 50 years. You have helped to create a wonderful place in which to live, and helped numerous people with the many problems that life places in front of them. You should all be very proud of what you have achieved and the services you have provided.
During the past 50 years, all the officers have faced many challenges in protecting the people of Anguilla and, as we all know, there have been unprecedented challenges since March 2020 with the presence of COVID 19. The response by the RAPF to keeping people safe during the pandemic has shown the determination of the RAPF, both regular officers and Special Constables, to protect the public and to deliver an excellent service. It also showed the trust and confidence in the RAPF as we received many calls from all the communities of the island informing us of the breaches that were occurring to allow us to respond to those breaches and protect the public. This was impressive to witness and this relationship needs to continue. I will come back to this shortly.
Since its formation on 28th January 1972, the RAPF has continually had to adapt, responding to a vastly different range of operating environments and to new types of offending to maintain public safety. These have ranged from responding to incidents at sea, to save people’s lives and stop illegal activities, to more recently investigating and addressing issues in the digital and social media worlds. I would like to take a moment to formally thank all the officers for meeting those challenges, and for working so hard and with such commitment, in order to assist and protect the public.
Public confidence has been key to the success of the RAPF and is vital to the work of policing. This brings me to the crux of my broadcast today. We – the police and the community of Anguilla – must have the confidence to address the challenges we face together. It is only by working collaboratively and together that we can achieve meaningful and lasting improvement. Our common goal – of making people safe so they can flourish personally and economically – means that our challenges, and our triumphs, are shared.
As public servants – and we are exactly that, we are servants of the public – the RAPF need to remain alive to the wider society in which we operate – so it is worth taking a few moments to explore some of the broader issues to which we – the police and the community of Anguilla – must respond. The recent killings of several people in Anguilla have not yet created the watershed moment across society to address gang related violence. Predominantly young Anguillian men are dying because this watershed point has not yet been reached.
Individuals, very brave members of the public and RAPF officers, have responded to the issue of gang related violence and taken on the challenge of addressing it by being witnesses and by completing complex work, but we – the public and the police – need to be open about the work we need to do to tackle this issue. We need to stop accepting this as the norm. It is not normal, and we need to work together to remove this issue and the consequences it brings to an otherwise beautiful island.
There is, I believe, a lot of intelligence and information in the community about this issue, and it needs to be shared with the police so that we can work to stop people dying. I would ask any of you who are listening, or who know people who can provide information about gang related violence, to please share information with the RAPF so we can help the communities of Anguilla remove the blight of gang related violence.
Moving away from the issue of gang-related violence, we – the police and the community of Anguilla – also need to widen our lens and look at the full spectrum of behaviours that affect or cause others upset or harm. Incidents can include family and neighbour disputes that, if left unresolved, can lead to offending and long term concern. The RAPF needs to be much closer to local people at a community level, and closer to key local individuals, to help local people resolve the issues of most concern to them. The RAPF will get closer to the local communities of Anguilla, and I am pleased to announce that the RAPF is to return to Community Policing in April 2022. Each area will have a local community police officer who will work with the community, other local experts, community voices and victim representatives to explore and resolve the issues that are important to the communities they serve. I believe this will bring about positive and real changes to many people’s lives.
Whilst we are looking through our collective lens, we need to see all the good work the community and the police do together. This is the principle of Police Week. It brings the police and the public together and shows the true caring relationship that exists. This year’s Police Week celebrations, like last year’s Police Week celebrations, have had to be reduced in size but the intent is still the same, to connect the RAPF with the many people we often do not connect with and to continue to make a difference to the community and people’s lives.
Together we – the police and the community of Anguilla – can address any issue we wish to and bring about any change that we want. With that in mind, I would ask the communities of Anguilla to have much more confidence in the RAPF and to challenge the negatives narratives that exist. My staff and I will work hard to build that confidence and to retain the trust that you place in us.
I will finish where I started. During the last 50 years the RAPF has responded amazingly well to a huge range of diverse challenges. We – the police and the community of Anguilla – must now build on this work. If we do, we will bring criminals to justice, support victims, and build public confidence that will bring about long-term sustainable change that will allow all people to truly enjoy their lives and flourish both personally and economically.
Thank you very much for listening to this broadcast and, in closing this broadcast, I would just like to say: ‘God bless you all, God bless the RAPF and God Bless Anguilla.
