Basseterre, St. Kitts, December 07, 2015 (SKNIS)—The Government’s six-point crime fighting plan will take time to see results and law enforcement officers should be given that time, said Attorney General, Honourable Vincent Byron, on last week’s edition of the radio programme “Working for You.”
The attorney general was asked by the moderator of the programme to respond to the comments of opposition leader Dr. Denzil Douglas that the Government’s six-point crime fighting plan is not working. Minister Byron said the statement of Dr. Douglas is unfortunate as crime is a societal problem that has developed overtime.
“It is unfortunate that the former prime minister should say that such a plan is not working without giving it time. He would know better than us that if you are going to implement policy…that it must take time for them to take root and move forward,” he said.
He noted that while the police is taking measures to address some of the problems being experienced, the newly launched Criminal Justice Strategic Board (CJSB) is taking a collaborative approach to addressing the dispensing of justice and providing support to law enforcement. He also said that the work of the board will help the authorities to point out the areas that need improvement and this will take time.
“I have confidence that we have put in place the particular framework and we have to motivate and inspire those who are working in the system; give them time to produce the results that we expect them to produce,” the attorney general said.
In a previous edition of Working For You, Minister Byron in explaining the role of the CJSB, pointed out how it will assist in measuring the efficiency of the dispensing of justice. He recounted that there are 60 people on remand and this was unacceptable.
“How can we improve that to reduce the number significantly that people can have access to justice; can go before the court, be dealt with and their matter be dispensed with in a timely manner, in a reasonable time,” asked the attorney general. “There are a number of ways in which the board can measure and bring these matters under control and so we expect that in this way, working together rather than working in silos—everybody doing their own thing, now we can have, as it was, a network interlinked support for each other.”