We are not at war with the citizens-ACCP President

May 16, 2009 News

The region’s police forces are not at war with its citizens, says Barbados Commissioner of Police and current President of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police, Darwin Dottin.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday at the end of the final session of deliberations of the 24th annual ACCP conference, Dottin said that while he is not advocating a soft approach to crime, police forces in the region should be firm in the dispensation of their functions.

Dottin was at the time responding to queries about how the region’s law enforcement agencies can deal effectively with the recent upsurge of gang violence, which is devastating the landscape of especially Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
He warned though that the matter of law enforcement should not be divorced from social conditions in communities.

He added that law enforcement, governmental agencies and non-governmental agencies have to come up with an approach to deal with the very deep social problems.
“A strict law enforcement approach is not going to work. If you continue to use force, you will continue to use force. There are interesting examples of how that type of social intervention will work,” the ACCP President stressed.

He said that he was not advocating soft policing, since firm policing is required in some cases.
Dottin acknowledged that more and more youths are falling prey to gang recruitment and to address this trend, which can become highly contagious.
According to the Barbados police chief, it has been observed that in some Caribbean states there is a need for recognition among youths, which he said is one of the leading causes of gang violence.
He said that there are certain risk factors that cannot be ignored when dealing with the crisis.
Among them are poor parenting skills, incomplete schooling, deprivation and the early access by youths to guns.

And with the economic crisis creating havoc in the small economies of the region, there is likely to be an increase in these types of activities as more and more youths fall prey to the lucrative drug trade, which is fuelling the gang violence.

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