Attorney General Dale Marshall has indicated that crime prevention is a critical part of Government’s agenda.
And, Mr. Marshall expects the work of Minister of State in the Office of Attorney General, with responsibility for Crime Prevention, Corey Lane, and his team to bear fruit in the future.
He made the comments today as he addressed the Symposium – From Research to Action: Focused Approaches to Crime Prevention, at the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management Inc., The UWI, Cave Hill Campus.
The Attorney General told his audience: “We’ve decided that we wouldn’t just spend money on equipping the police … and the judicial system, we will spend $12 million on crime prevention…. For me that is an important signal from the Government of Barbados, not just to our citizens, but to the region. Crime prevention has to become a national initiative.”
He expressed confidence that the crime prevention budget would be increased every financial year, as novel approaches were used to try to prevent crime.
“It is a signal that it [crime prevention] is a part of the Government’s agenda. Crime prevention for us is no longer the police officer telling you put lights outside your house, it is going to be how we get into our communities and try to divert our young men. We have a Crime Prevention plan that is pretty much well laid out. We’ve begun a few small projects, and I expect that you’ll see over the next few months, the work of Minister Lane and his group of enthusiastic young men and women paying off in tremendous ways,” he stated.
Mr. Marshall said the regional crime symposium, which was held in Trinidad last month, showed that crime in its many manifestations represented a clear and present danger to our societies.
Stating that the cost of violent crime was creating a problem for regional economies, he pointed out that Government had budgeted $130 million for The Barbados Police Service, and increased the judges on the criminal bench.
He continued: “At present, we have 94 murder trials waiting to be done…. Some of those accused are charged with more than one murder…. We have seven manslaughter cases waiting to be tried, [and] we have 287 firearm cases waiting to be tried. Now we have to have a national response to those things.”
The two-day symposium, which ends on Friday, is being hosted by The UWI Cave Hill Campus, – Office of the Principal, and The UWI Centre for Criminal Justice and Security, in collaboration with CariSECURE 2.0.