The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A NEW Firearms and Gang Unit will be implemented in Grand Bahama as early as this week, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander announced during his first official visit to the island since his appointment two months ago.

“We see a proliferation of firearms being smuggled here as well as in Grand Bahama and eventually trickle down into New Providence; we see a lot of serious crimes occurring in Grand Bahama and firearms are the weapon of choice being used,” he said recently.

Commissioner Fernander believes that the canals and waterways make Grand Bahama susceptible to firearm and human smuggling.

“We have a lot of canals,” he said. “We visited the (container) port and we know we are wide open for weapon smuggling into The Bahamas.

“The unit you should see up and running as early as (this) week,” he said during his visit to the island on Thursday. “We already found a space here in Police Headquarters and identified some officers who will be assigned to that area.”

The new unit will also consist of officers from the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, as well as the Departments of Customs and Immigration.

“This combined effort we are taking as we approach this task force as well in Grand Bahama, I believe that was a missing puzzle in the way we tackled this crime situation,” the police chief said.

New crime fighting technology also will be implemented in Grand Bahama to assist police with their crime fight, the commissioner said.

He revealed that CCTV and Shot Spotter technology will both come online by the end of year or early 2023.

“We are going to put our CCTV with the Shot Spotters in some hotspots. We have already looked at data to identify our hot spots where most of these crimes are happening and where the guns are being fired in our communities.”

He explained that if somebody fires a shot in an area the technology will alert authorities.

“Officers will be able to respond and catch the individual in the act or moving away,” he added.

IT staff came to the island last week to map out the areas of Grand Bahama that will be targeted with the new technology.

When asked about body cams, the commissioner said that is also something they are looking at.

“We want to protect the integrity of officers and our citizens out there. There are a lot of complaints against police officers which we try to eliminate, and the body cams will help to do that. So, it protects and ensures the officer does what he is supposed to do.”

Police manpower is another area that is of concern in Grand Bahama, the commissioner said.

“No, I am not pleased with it,” he said when asked about the level of manpower. “We are doing a manpower audit here and as I move around to the various divisions you can see the deficiencies in some of the areas and that is something we are looking at.

“We have a total of 99 recruits in New Providence who will be graduating in another three weeks or so and that will be a start. And we have another 100 recruits lined up to go right after this crew has graduated,” Commissioner Fernander said.