The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I have made no secret of my view that the single factor responsible for the dramatic rise in murders in The Bahamas over the last 15 years has been the courts, and the utterly irresponsible actions of Judges who grant bail to people accused of murder on the feeblest of grounds.

Politicians for their part shoulder much of the blame for their pusillanimity in not interfering with the courts more vigorously on account of some bogus, fictional nonsense about “separation of powers”.  

Having said that, and despite my generally high regard for the members and institution of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the deployment and strategies of the organisation could be far better tuned to ensuring the safety of Bahamians than they presently are.

The governing philosophy of the RBPF seems to be more that of an occupying force, responding to the most extreme and ultimate outcomes of general social disorder (like murder), rather than a ubiquitous, visible and generally present public service that is proactive in preventing social disorder even in its nascent forms (like anti-social behaviour). This philosophy found official sanction with at least one Minister of National Security, Tommy Turnquest, who proudly refused to rebrand the organisation a “service” rather than a force.

With the exception of a few highly publicised “walk abouts” by officers in khaki, our police are barracked away in a few huge, remote stations and only seen passing through like occupying troops on patrol. One suspects part of this culture is a colonial legacy and another, perhaps larger, part is proximity to the US, which has long had a militarised approach to policing (in their own country and abroad, unfortunately) that is now coming into focus as traffic stops end in people being shot dead on camera.

In other places, like the UK, policing is more local in nature and works a lot better. High crime areas like low-income Council Estates are individually-policed by mobile stations (vans) which can be easily relocated to respond to changing patterns of crime prevalence and “turf wars”. On a tiny island like ours, it is a mystery why this approach never seems to have occurred to those in charge.

Just over a year ago, an old friend from Bermuda spent a day here on a cruise ship and was given a tour of the island by me. His most poignant comment was “Wow, where are the police? The criminals in Bermie would love this place”.

Since then I have become more aware of a fact that residents of New Providence have grown accustomed to – the almost total absence of a visible police presence in the places it is most needed.  

In fact, if you take a map of this island and pin-point where the police are concentrated, then consider where the crimes are taking place, the utter illogic of our policing strategy becomes sobering.

All of the sprawling Carmichael Road community is policed by one large imperial barracks several miles from much of the population and commerce. Unless a police cruiser happens to be passing when somebody is about to be shot, then their entire role in this high-crime area is that of crime scene investigators.

Over the weekend, a nine-year-old child died tragically in Balls Alley. Balls Alley, Kemp Road, Okra Hill, the Pond, Lyon Road and St James Road are all well known to harbour a serious, violent criminal element. Yet they fall within an area which is “patrolled” but not policed. From East Street in the west to the Montagu Foreshore in the East to Wulff Road in the South, there is not a single policeman stationed.

Yellow Elder is now so familiar to anyone who regularly reads crime reports that one can predict with absolute certainly that at least one more murder will occur this year on West Dennis Court. Yet even such certainty is not enough to convince those in charge to simply station a mobile police van in the immediate area, so as to at least obstruct the inevitable silver Honda that will be fleeing the scene of the next murder. Who knows, they may even prevent it.

None of this is to criticise or demoralise the fine members of the RBPF, who are up there with the best on earth in terms of training, response and investigation (and certainly do not need any foreign help, for the record). Rather, what is needed is a little original thinking at the political level, which one fears is precisely where the deficit lies.

ANDREW ALLEN

Nassau,

August 2, 2015.