Dear BP,
As crime spirals out of control and, the “Golden Boys” in National Security grasp at straws I am reminded of a Monograph that I read as a young Constable in the Royal Bahamas Police Force Library. That monograph written by a brilliant member of the Police Reserves was entitled “Problem-Oriented Policing Suppressing Crime through Community-Oriented Policing” was a response to what I understand was a projected increase in crime and, questioned the methods of Police.
Unfortunately, the monograph also spoke to what it called the main reason behind the Forces ineffective policing this was. “An overly Centralised “Command and Control Structure”. The police command at the time picked this sentence out of a rather long paper and used this to criticize the other parts of the paper and essentially ignored the whole thing. As I reflect back, I am sure that if this monograph was given the kind of consideration that it should have, the Bahamas would be in a better place today!
The current Urban Renewal programme matter how well meaning is not working and never will work for exactly the same reasons predicted in the paper in 1993.
If the Prime Ministers vision of reducing crime levels and fear of crime is to be realized may I suggest that the senior police officers locate this paper in the Police Training College Library, read it, than formulate a crime fighting strategy based on it.
Sincerely,
A former Police Officer
