St Kitts & Nevis: Private sector wants help from RSS to deal with rising crime

BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – The St. Kitts and Nevis Chamber of Commerce has said that violent crimes, including murders, have reached crisis proportion and is calling on the authorities to seek help from the Regional Security System (RSS).



In a statement, the Chamber said that it has taken note of the recent increase in murders here and “strongly suggests that the government accept the recommendation of civil society bodies to call in the RSS to assist the local security forces to take back the streets from the criminal insurgents while the anti-crime initiative announced by government is implemented.



“We again call on the public to give full support to law enforcement in apprehending and prosecuting those who have become a scourge to our society and whose behavior will destroy the society unless quickly curbed.”



Over the past week, at least four people were shot and killed and earlier this week, Opposition Leader Mark Brantley called on Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas to cut short his vacation in the United States and return home to deal with the situation.



Brantley said there was also need to declare a State of Emergency “in certain known trouble spots in the country and impose dusk to dawn curfews in those areas”



He also wants the authorities to have emergency powers to stop and search and arrest without warrant and recall security personnel from leave “and flood the trouble spots with security personnel for 24 hours … every day.”



In his eight point crime initiative, the Opposition Leader said that he also wanted the government to consider asking the Barbados-based RSS or even friendly international governments for security personnel “to be deployed to St. Kitts and Nevis at least for a 90-120 day period initially”.



Police Commissioner Austin Williams has expressed concern over the rising crime situation warning that the influx of illegal firearms is one of the greatest challenges facing law enforcement.



“…Our borders are porous. We wish we could do something about that. I hope something is done about that soon,” Williams told the WINN FM station here.



Williams also commented on calls for the RSS to help local law enforcement officials.



“In my view the RSS still would have to depend on us for whatever intelligence we have,” he said, calling on the public to provide information that could assist the police.