Antiguan PM sounds warning about organized crime in the region

Baldwin Spencer, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, has told regional police commissioners that organised crime has created a great deal of fear, uncertainty and anxiety amongst Caribbean people already having to deal with the uncertainties occasioned by the global economic crisis.

Mr. Spencer, who was speaking at the 26^th annual conference of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP), said "as regional leaders and heads of law enforcement agencies we all have a responsibility to act and to act decisively to address the problems of crime and security. Robust and prolonged actions are needed to counteract these threats," Mr. Spencer told delegates attending the four-day conference.

He added that while over the past decade, the ACCP has taken the fight against crime in the region to the door-steps of the criminals themselves, organised crime is not confined to any one particular Caribbean nation.

"It requires us to collaborate on a broad scale and enlist the services of our regional and international partners," Mr. Spencer said

According to the Prime Minister, the lessons learned from the impact caused by the terrorist events in the United States on September 11, 2001 "remind us that we are not in the fight alone nor are we immune to the fallout from criminal activities perpetrated on our neighbours in the north or in Europe and even further a field. 

"The region has felt the effects. Our economies have suffered and continue to feel the aftershocks," he said, welcoming the collaboration with various international law enforcement agencies.

Mr. Spence recalled that regional leaders at their 2001 summit had expressed concern over the new forms of crime and violence that continue to threaten the security of the region.

He said in an effort to address this matter, a Regional Task Force on Crime and Security was established with the ACCP playing an integral role in its final recommendations to the leaders.

He said one of the issues highlighted by the Task Force is that criminals have demonstrated that they are prepared to use the same technologies that were designed to empower law enforcement officers in order “ to create and to build and use them to pose untold economic and security challenges to countries within our region."

(Source: CARICOM News Network)