Invariably, public policing during the Summer Festival can be a daunting task for the Royal Anguilla Police Force (RAPF). On Tuesday, August 14th, the RAPF called its first post-festival press conference to give an updated report on how the Force functioned over the festival season that extended from August 2st through August 12th.
According to Commissioner Paul Morrison, “This press briefing was called in keeping with the force’s policy on openness, transparency and accountability to the public — on how we carried out our policing operations during the period of the festival.”
The Commissioner continued: “The fesitival event went off as smoothly as it could. During the events, there were 106 incidents reported to the police. Normally, in a regular eleven-day period we would have an average of 66 incidents. So this is an increase of 40% of incidences that the Force had to manage during the festival season.
Of those 106 reports, 76 related to crime. For these, 31 persons were detained for a variety of offences. These included robberies, one stabbing, and one case of gun possession. The carrying of offensive weapons and fighting were generally the most common offences during this period.
“As one can see, for this short period, we have had to carry out a large security operation to process those number of offences, and the demands on police services were extremely high.”
That being said, the entire police force came in for high praise from Commissioner Morrison for its performance during the festival. The Commission gave recognition to the senior officers in particular, and he commended them for their professional performance during the entire festival season.
Commissioner Morrison, in explaining the command structure of the Force for the policing of the festival, stated that the structure consisted of three tiers of officers, namely: the gold commanders, silver commander and bronze commanders. The gold commanders consisted of himself and the Deputy Commissioner Elliot Forbes who were principally responsible for setting up the strategic direction of the Force and ensuring that resources were made available to the silver commander.
The silver commander had responsibility for delivering a tactical plan. This commander was Desmond Patterson. Underneath the silver commander were a number of bronze commanders who have specific responsibilities for the various events. These commanders included Shem Wills of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), who was responsible for crime investigation and processing, and Inspector Randolf Yearwood and Inspector Brian Best who were responsible for the logistics.
Other bronze commanders included Cherrydelle Coombs who was responsible for intelligence. She worked with the silver commander in threat assessments. There was also Sannette McDowell who was responsible for the safety of children at the events. And finally, there was Shem Mcdowell who was responsible for traffic management.
The Commissioner thanked the Anguillian community for the part it played in looking out for each other’s wellbeing and enabling everyone to enjoy a relatively safe and incident free Summer Festival.
