‘Buildings do not provide policing’ – Matthews

Commissioner of Police Michael Matthews has told representative of the Second Electoral District Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull that buildings cannot provide policing.

He made the remark after the political representative raised concern that the Cane Garden Bay Police Station still remained closed except for certain times of the day.

The political representative added that he did not think that having police officers travel from West End and Road Town was adequate to serve the area in his constituency, which also includes Meyers.

Up to last week, a resident complained about visiting the Cane Garden Bay Police Station to report a crime, but no one was there, and no one answered the phone. Commissioner Matthews did not seem perturbed when he responded to the resident on a Facebook.

It was the same attitude that he brought to the parliament’s Standing Finance Committee meeting recently.

Reporting on the commissioner’s response to the political representative, the parliamentary committee, in its report tabled yesterday, SAID: “The Commissioner of Police stated that the first observation he would make was that buildings do not provide policing; police officers provide policing…

“The commissioner also stated that the Force currently does not have the resources to to maintain the 24/7 opening of the Cane Garden Bay Police Station. They, therefore, had to make a risk assessment decision to operate the main capabilities to cover that District from the West End Station,” added the Standing Finance Committee.

Commissioner Matthews, in the meantime, said the mere fact that officers are not at Cane Garden Bay Police Station does not mean they are not in the community.

He added that he is keen to explore the option of having a mobile police station capability.