By L.K. Hewlett
St. Kitts Reporter
Following a spate of gun related and violent incidents, Minister of National Security Hon. Dwyer Astaphan condemned the actions as ‘degrading’.
“There are people in our society who are reckless with regard to their life and the lives of other people. One of the problems we are having with all of this violent culture that is invading and degrading us is a growing fear among individuals in society.
“Citizens are not sharing information with the police, some because they do not want to bring harm to the offenders who they may be friendly with or related to. Others may be unwilling to give information because of fear of recrimination or retaliation to them or their family members,” Astaphan said.
The security minister said he’d held discussions with Police Commissioner Robert Jeffers with regard to implementing certain strategies to tackle these and other crime.
“I’ve asked the police commissioner to collaborate with the defence force commander to strategize together and come up with a steady and relentless program of canine searches throughout both St. Kitts and Nevis. They will target suspected areas, open areas, fields, in fact everywhere, so that those who would hoard guns, other weapons and drugs and other contraband will understand that it is time for them to go on the defensive,” he stated.
Astaphan assured that the dogs were not attack dogs but were instead trained drug sniffing dogs that would not attack people that were conducting themselves in an orderly manner.
“These dogs are trained to sniff out guns, bombs and drugs and things like that. They will be put to work on a ‘full court press’. We will not tolerate this type of violence, this type of agitation and behaviour which only leads to reduced confidence, reduced peace and stability and reduced productivity in our society,” the minister warned.
Against that backdrop, it was announced that eleven police recruits from Dominica and five from Grenada are in St. Kitts to undergo police training.
According to Inspector Terrence James, the trainees are going through an orientation session as this field is new to the foreigners. He said that foreigners from our neighbouring islands were brought in because in recent years there has been a significant drop in local recruits. The orientation session will last two weeks after which basic police training will begin.
