Community too silent amid spike in serious crime
Acting Interim Commissioner of Police Richard Ullger
Interim Police Commissioner Richard Ullger has criticised what he sees as a lack of urgency from the community in helping police solve serious crimes, following the recent murder charge against a 14-year-old boy.
Speaking on the Talking Points radio show, Ullger said the case should force the territory to examine how a child could allegedly become involved in such serious violence. The teenager was 13 when the alleged offence occurred and was 14 when he was charged with murder.
“When we know a young person has committed such a horrendous, violent crime at the age of 13, we need to, as a society, look at ourselves and see where we’re going wrong,” Ullger said. He stressed that simply arresting and charging someone does not address the wider problem.
“It doesn’t end there,” Ullger said. “We need to make sure that this does not happen again. We need to learn from our lessons.”
However, the interim commissioner said he has not seen enough urgency from residents, particularly when police repeatedly appeal for information about crimes.
“Unfortunately, I just don’t see the push from the community in that regard,” Ullger said. He argued that if residents were sufficiently concerned, more people with information would be contacting police, despite ongoing concerns about public trust and confidence in law enforcement.
Ullger said the case should prompt difficult questions about both the accused teenager and the victim.
“As a community, we need to look at ourselves and say, where did we go wrong with this young man?” he said. “Why didn’t we provide safety to the victim who lost his life?”
The Commissioner’s comments come amid longstanding concerns about a culture of silence that persists when serious crimes are committed in the BVI. Though sections of the community may know who the violence producers are, people largely refuse to give information to the police, pointing to fear of retaliation and a lack of trust in the police as the reasons for their silence.
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Where is the Crime stopper phone number and tell public the call in requires no name nor caller ID.
Putting Crime Stoppers number on Police cars was a mistake. It further reinforced the belief that the police would receive the information and the person who provided it would be in danger. Even the board of directors of Crime Stoppers did not believe in the idea of anonymity. Crime Stoppers works in places like Trinidad but it can’t work in the BVI even when you offer a financial reward because no one could come up with a plan for giving the money to the tipster without them somehow being identified. Crimestoppers was launched twice and failed both times. The BVI is well and truly different.
Sorry, a different morality and culture here.
The morality and culture that caused the problem is the problem. We like the snake feeding on its tail.
More officers need rooting out period! Start there and continue to hold them accountable. Many of them are affiliated with incarcerated individuals here and the prison system is no different.
When there are murders for example, no ballistic information or other details are publicly shared. WhatsApp seems to have more details than what the police share with the public. Investigations seem to run cold. No updates whatsoever. Look at the robberies at the Pier Park. Not one person arrested or charged for those brazen daytime crimes!
So Mr. CoP- work on the public image of your RVIPF and build back trust in your officers & the public as the priority. The rest will follow suit and maybe, just maybe; the tide might turn in your favor.
They have a lot of female officers who are involve with known and unknown criminals so what do you expect. We the public sees and knows what’s going on. Clean up your internal mess before you come to us
If you talking about known and unknown criminals it have plenty of them employed in the RVIPF. Who vetting these people that joining the force?