BVI News

Safe place! Governor not seeking external help for crime surge

File photo of members of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Force in Road Town after the September 2017 hurricanes.

As shootings continue to escalate in the territory with the latest firearm-related incident this week leaving two victims wounded at Fish Bay, Governor John Rankin has indicated that he is not inclined to seek outside help to stem the crime rate.

Governor Rankin suggested that things may not be as extreme as some might think and pointed to several measures which he said were being undertaken to address the crime problem.

“This is a safe place in which to live and to work and it must remain so,” the governor said at a recent press conference. “But clearly we need to have both a short-term and long-term response to the incidents which have occurred.”

Rankin said that there has understandably been some concern among residents over the spate of robberies and shootings that have taken place in recent months, however, he said overall, this remains a low-crime community for most people in the territory.

The governor pointed to additional patrols being done by the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF) and the reopening of the East End and West End police stations as some of the measures directed toward the escalating crime rate.

He further noted that there have also been steps taken to strengthen the RVIPF’s marine unit in Anegada and Virgin Gorda and said there is a wider law enforcement review that is currently underway.

“I do recall that after Hurricane Irma where we clearly faced an extreme situation, that assistance was received including armed police officers coming from fellow overseas territories to assist in the territory,” Rankin said.

He added: “But should that further law enforcement review identify further needs, then I will look further with the Police Commissioner and with the Premier on what further resources may be required, and of course, in an extreme situation, assistance would be looked at from outside.”

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16 Comments

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  1. What? says:

    Is Rankin making a joke? Here is a mess.

    Like 34
    Dislike 3
  2. Sorry says:

    I have no idea what amount of police the islands have. I do never see any and if you need them you cannot reach any of them either. What a nice job, don’t do anything for 20 years and then retire.

    Like 37
    Dislike 2
  3. Salty Fish says:

    We keep on kicking the can down the road!

    Like 29
  4. Teally Governor says:

    What is your definition of unsafe?
    When citizens are caught up and killed during the cross fire?
    The loval populace mouth is zipped because one of the gunman or the unlawful drug
    person might be related
    So you will wait until the crime rate escalates before you bring in independent individuals to clean up the country .
    A grandmother will beg for her grandchildren an aunt and uncle will beg for nieces and nephews and cousins will beg for his cousins so nobody is going to snitch on anybody . That is why crimes are going unsolved and drugs continue to go through the system
    Wake up Governor study the culture of the BVI and you will understand the these crimes will go unsolved

    Like 30
    Dislike 4
  5. Desperation says:

    seems to be main reason BVI gun owners are shooting each other or burning their speed boats. Constant police pressure is shutting down their various criminal income streams so desperate times for the crime families.

    Like 12
    Dislike 1
  6. Lies lies lies says:

    The place is the most unsafe it has ever been in my life. I do not know what ghetto John Rankin come from. It must have been very rough for him growing up to call this hell hole safe! It went real bad under his watch. More guns, more crimes and less police presence. Shoot out planned at prison, shootout at police station, robberies, guns cant done as if they are being manufactured here. WE ARE NOT SAFE! We are as safe as much as the police bill does not infringe upon human rights! STOP LYING. FIX THE MESS YOU CREATED OR GIVE THE JOB TO SOMEONE WHO CAN!

    Like 25
    Dislike 3
  7. Roger Burnett says:

    @ Teally Governor.

    You’re quite right, no one will tell.

    Thirty years ago the FCO sent a lawyer to prosecutor drug offenders, but she found it impossible to get a conviction. Everyone was somehow or other related to the suspect and hence, no one to testify.

    Like 12
  8. Watch them closely says:

    To bring in support from outside will make the governor look like a failure because he has responsibility for security and the police. If security was under a local minister you would hear him asking for outside assistance. Watch these people closely. It’s games they be playing. All of a sudden the place safe but that’s not what the lying police commissioner was saying in his video that he produced when he first came.

    Like 9
    Dislike 1
  9. Pacificador says:

    Place is a melting pot for disaster. Place is so small, it’s a breeding ground for nepotism. You have a police officer’s family running an illegal gambling operation out in the open. You have relatives of police officers involved in drug dealing and other crimes. Drug dealers are renowned and looked up to like action heroes and robinhoods. It will take an external force to clean up the place from the streets up to the high places.

    Like 13
  10. Dirty cops says:

    Them only going to domestic violence call and when them get the man in a cel them asking the girl for wife set of island man using them barg to get wife. Bullying for b**ch

    Like 5
    Dislike 1
  11. Bull Pi88 says:

    The BVI isn’t any more unsafe now than it was 20 years ago. All that has changed is access to information with technological advancements. Everything is overhyped for a reaction. The economy is in complete shambles and the Government does not seem to give a f**k and the people seem to accept mediocrity. It has always been evident that when the economy is good, things are being built, Government infrastructure being upgraded etc., there is little or no crime happening. Now everyone is on edge, all powers that be do is talk s**t and travel all over the world, then we wait for things to happen and hold press conferences, it’s all a stupid cycle over and over.

    Like 9
    Dislike 2
  12. @ WATCH THEM CLOSELY says:

    You are so conceited / the UK offered their navy for free to control our border ( WHO ) BLUNTLY REFUSED IT ? )and are you saying that the execution style
    killing in fish bay
    video that the commissioner exposed to the people of the BVI was a FAKE ❓️

    Like 4
    Dislike 1
  13. Another Mistake. says:

    This Governor keep making mistakes after mistakes. 1st amidst of all the evidence of dishonesty and corruption the COI revealed ‘no action. In the flight & plight crime is moving ‘No action’. Unless their plan is to allow the BVI to sink to the bottom of no return..

    Like 3
    Dislike 1
  14. SMH says:

    It’s black vs black crimes that’s why… kill the first white cop and you’ll see how many help would be needed

  15. @Dirty cops says:

    Sad, true, very true. But not new. This is a decades upon decades old practice by those in law enforcement.

    Very low to no moral or ethical holdings they are.

  16. hello says:

    Just relax y’all self.Go by the Minister club back of village cay,have a Brugal..chat up one of the ladies…..and most of all ..don’t forget the tip.

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