‘Nonsense’ to think police can just solve shootings — Matthews
Former Police Commissioner Michael Matthews has called for more public involvement by residents in order to get dangerous criminals in the territory off the streets and behind bars.
While appearing on the Talking Points show yesterday, Matthews pointed to the unwillingness by residents to come forward with evidence to assist members of Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF) with some of the serious unsolved crimes in the territory.
Commenting on yesterday’s shooting death of a man on the eastern end of Tortola, Matthews said: “It saddens my soul and my heart every time I hear that (a shooting) on the news because it feels like nothing is changing.”
According to Matthews, the situation of unsolved crimes will not change unless some of the real barriers such as trust and confidence are overcome in the community. “It’s about the local community themselves being prepared to stand up and say, ‘enough is enough, I’m not gonna accept this anymore’,” Matthews stated.
The former commissioner said police are often lambasted by bloggers and other people for failures in solving crimes but he argued that solving and detecting serious offences such as murders is a very complex thing to do.
“The only way you detect a crime of that nature is by finding who the killer is and taking them off the street and placing them before a court. Now to do that, to take somebody’s liberty away like that, you’ve gotta have substantial evidence. And that evidence is not easy to find in such a small community like ours, because people are frightened to come forward,” Matthews explained.
He added: “People are reluctant to say what they saw, and we all know – because it’s a fact that if you are a witness to something – at some point you’ve gotta go and stand in a courtroom in front of a judge or a magistrate and say what you saw quite publicly. That’s a public duty.”
But Matthews said the only way for persons in the territory to remain safe is to accept this public duty as part of their responsibility.
“I can tell you now that I tried to do it and I know Commissioner [Mark] Collins has worked very, very hard to find ways that the public can come forward and give information in confidence to help the police solve these crimes,” Matthews related.
He argued that, although police have tools and resources such as ballistics, fingerprinting, DNA and other crime solving measures, “it is nonsense [and] it is Hollywood and TV show stuff to think that the police can just go out there and solve a shooting.”
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Shot spotter and Cameras in the places where the bad elements frequent! Secure tip line with anonymous features so persons collect rewards anonymously for any tip relative to the case.
Cases solved!
Wow and I am not a white UK police sent here!
People still won’t talk even if a million dollars was the reward because of this “no snitching” mentality!
Already have cameras in the HOA.
Police is the real criminal in our litte islanders they can’t be trusted and add Rankin and Collins and Pam to that
This Guy and his Cronies got paid And is still getting paid and all they doing is reporting Meka Barry stories and not helping the Public. All they are doing is tarnishing the Bvi. #work for taxpayers money but they are doing nothing but wasting money ?. It’s a shame if Bvi landers was doing the Mess they doing they would say it’s Bad Governance.The Bvi is not a Real Place it’s Destroyed by the Foreign Powers..
The horse is out of the gate and greed and corruption rule the roost. People claim to want honesty and integrity and ethics and a country with a low crime rate and so forth but what they really want is to make money in peace and not have to worry about getting shot themselves. If they wanted a better society then they would advocate for it and would work to putting the systems in place to achieve it. Look at countries with low crime rates and look at what they did to achieve that. BVI can do it too but lack of leadership and lack of interest….
Crime isn’t a policing issue alone. It’s a societal issue and requires societal responses.
Why should we tell the police anything in the police to play the kilos them know who talk to him we police is rat that know who the killer is because the set them free out of jail
But then again that might not work , some people refuse to believe what they see ,/ or will conceal it because they created
whatever going on
I would snitch for the right price, i need enough to leave the country and start a new life
I guess he is doing what he was supposed to do from the time he stepped foot on this island. To undermine the fabric of our society and the force.
Why is he making these comments? With his comments the criminals will continue without fear of getting caught will just wreak havoc. Look at the video the current cop made that video is a reflection of Mathews and his leadership these guys have an agenda no doubt.
It was the son of the woman who owns G**** in East End that shot and killed him
It is not the white man problem . He is trying to clean up the third pilliar which was given strength by the fact that this country’s former Premier is under surveillance in Florida .
Blame that …. The people in the country vex and upset with the UK instead of trying to figure out who is responsible!!
Who shooting who ? The young men living in this country not the UK . This is not a real place . Relatives know what their family in then cry foul and blame others when there is gun play
No sir, you were an integral part of the entire problem when you held the COP seat. You kept yourself aloof from the general public, you were unapproachable and uncontactable, getting a confidential appointment with you was an impossibility, this writer knows that first hand. You may have had the trust of the people, but, the lower ranking members of your force one had to go through to meet with you did not.
Just the way they think they can be sick for 2 months straight without seeing a doctor and as soon as Death comes knocking on their door, they’re at the hospital because Jesus works there and He’ll heal them in the blink of an eye.