 Hello and welcome to Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service. I'm your host, Jacques Hengston Compton. We're going to do something a little different on this episode. Very recently, the Office of the Prime Minister had a press conference with the police commissioner, Mr. Milton Daisy, and of course, the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, the Honourable Philip J. Pierre. That press conference addressed matters pertaining to St. Lucia, such as citizen security, and the government's efforts on increasing citizen security. So please stay tuned, and here is the press conference. Good morning, re-antonies of Voice Publishing Newspaper. My question, I guess, to the commissioner of police. Are there any immediate measures government plans to take to hold gun violence in the country? Yes, there are measures in place to do that. Actually, it's not just now. We have measures in place to put gun violence in the country, especially down. I know that the gun violence is more prevalent, I would say, in the south now, and that is what the price is. What we have done so far is to go in there. We have collaborated with some of the social groups, the non-government organizations. We have met with some of the persons out there, we have met with leaders and so on, with a view of having persons mediate and to quell the situation. These are some of the things. And also on the other part, police, we have conducted police operations. In viewfort, we have frequent patrols. We have increased our patrols by means of bicycles. This is something that we never had in viewfort. Six bicycles will send to viewfort where they go into the immediate community to identify issues and so on and to report back to the station. Thank you for your question. Sheffield Gillard from Loop News. My question is for you, Mr PM. What would you like to see to the families of the islands nearly 35 million victims right now? Well, first of all, I just want to make it clear that I, like most other citizens of the country, not very happy, very concerned about the crime situation. There seems to be a provision of crime throughout the region, which we feel is in solution. Only this morning in Barbados, there was a double murder. In Jamaica last week, there was a murder of an entire family. There seems to be something happening that has caused an escalation of murders in the region. That doesn't mean that we couldn't say Lucia or we have to sit back and relax and see what's happening in Lucia. We will just leave it because it's happening. There seems to be something happening. There are all these murders in the U.S. where scores of people are killed. There seems to be something that's happening, which is very negative. Having said so, we are very concerned and we understand that people have to be concerned. We have nothing against people expressing their concern and even their outrage about what's happening in the crime situation. And I too, I am outraged. And this is why we are working with the members of the police service to see what we can do to alleviate that situation. Answer your more direct question. All I can do is wish them the families, my sincere condolences, my sympathies. It's not good to lose anybody. Jeff is nothing nice. And for those who have died, I'm very sorry. But we need to find the deeper reason. It's not something that we can just deal with on the surface. What's happening in the crime situation is concerning and the government is concerned. And within the resources that are available to us, we are trying our best. But the situation is not good and I will be the first person to tell you it needs to change when we try. Thank you Prime Minister. With the current situation, crime-related case in the island, will the RSS be asked to intervene, probably come down to St. Lucia to help alleviate that situation? Yes. I've had discussions with the commissioner. He also spoke to the commandant in the RSS. And we are bringing RSS troops into St. Lucia to assist the members of the Royal St. Lucia Police Service. They should be here sometime in July and it's a fact, yes. After consultation with the high command of the police force, we are causing some RSS officers to be in St. Lucia. Yes, it's going to happen. Okay, Mr. Commissioner, that question is for you. $40,000 a month for two K-9s as part of the K-9 unit. Was that money well spent? I could tell you what the K-9 at the time that the K-9 unit was in existence. What are the records? Actually, they attended 47 operations with 63% success. And that success included firearms and drugs and also cash. We had over $40,000 in just one operation being recovered by the unit. We also had nine firearms recovered by the unit and also an amount of drugs being recovered in that. So at the time, the K-9 unit, putting out the cost of it, the K-9 unit, and I think it is one of the, I would say, the tools needed, especially now with everything that's going on to have in the Royal St. Lucia Police Force. Actually, the K-9 we had were able to detect large sums of cash, drugs and firearms. What are the status of the unit right now, as we speak? From my understanding that this unit is, we are waiting for a renewal of probably its contract, but I don't know because it's not within my power to renew it. The contract was not between the force and the unit. The unit was given to us also customs and financial investigations agency. It was open to them to use. But in terms of, I believe that we need a unit in the Royal St. Lucia Police Force because it assists. Mr. Pion, can you shed some light on that? On the dogs. In terms of the renewal of the contract. Okay, I mean, I know there's a, we need some level of excitement in the country. I mean, things after COVID, there's need for, and the press is very happy to dive in. I understand that, you know, I understand. You know, I might tell you something, you know, some time ago, I was also, I was a reporter, you know that? In some time in my life, I worked with the press. So I understand the excitement of the press, you know that? I think that, let me just think about this. You know, and I hope as this interview continues, I can be able to dispel some of the myths and the lies that are peddling in St. Lucia. Real lies. And I'm very happy to dispel some of it. I have an agreement in my hand. The K-9 unit started in April 2021. Okay, it was an agreement for the provision of dogs and dog handlers. That was in April 2021. It continued and it was, it had to be renewed on a yearly basis, right? We continued. The government, the government of my, our government continued with the process. But right now, every cent we spend, we have to send it and look carefully at it. We must not take anything in silos. This government, right now, we have to subsidize gasoline for the public of St. Lucia by nearly a million dollars. We subsidize flour. We subsidize cooking gas. Never before has any government had to subsidize food stuff as we have to subsidize it. We receive no revenue from fuel, absolutely no revenue. I have a report on my desk right now from the Ministry of Finance to increase the price of fuel for us to make zero cents. To increase it to make zero cents. This is under consideration in my desk now. All the, the, the, the profits and the pseudo economists, I need them to tell me, give me a solution to the crisis of revenue, to the crisis in the future crisis of the supply chain, to the crisis of food in the world. If the solutions were available in the world, there would be absolutely no, no discussion. Inflation right now is at its highest for 40 years in the United States. Inflation. Fuel prices are at the highest. There is no one in St. Lucia, regardless of whether they are geniuses in finance, could tell me the solution to the issues that we have now, except the fact that the government must tighten its belts and the government must be prudent and the government must look to serve its, the, the greatest priorities. The last government increased the fuel tax by $1.50, ostensibly to pay for the fixing of roads, the roads that they build by direct award. Right now, these roads have to be paid and we get zero, zero for excise tax. I need the minister of finance to tell me how will we pay the debt that he incurred by direct award with no tendering for the construction of roads that he said would have been paid from the money from the excise tax. I need to get the answer for that. How will that revenue be raised? So you want to ask me about dogs, but I know what's exciting is dogs now. The, the, the agreement for the, the dogs was, is correct. The deputy prime minister is correct. It's $40,000 a month. The agreement was sent to us, but we have to be prudent. We've not signed it. You haven't said we will not sign it. We are, is under consideration. And that's the fact. It's a very simple situation. We had to make the choice. We had to make the choice. I'll tell you something. We've had to have an entire cabinet meeting to discuss the price of bread. This is, this is a real, this is a real situation. No government has ever had the crisis that we face. Even in COVID times, the government made revenue from fuel. Even during COVID times, at the height of COVID, the government made revenue from fuel. Now we're not, we're not making one cent from fuel. So I am, I'm very, very content about the situation, but I know the government is trying its best. And I defy any talk show hosts or any economists or any so-called, so-called competent ex-minister of finance to tell me how, how would improve that, that, that situation? So the answer to you or your dog question is that it's under consideration. The agreement is here and it's under consideration. Thank you very much. Mr. Daisy, is there a need for another operation to fight crime? No, we have continuously, we have operations that Intel driven and so on. It's not, it's not reinventing the wheel. We would have new ideas, new strategies in place, but we continuously have operations to fight crime. Okay. And Chef, we'll take the mic to someone else with a question. Anyone else? Karim Nelson from OTSeven. Mr. Daisy, earlier in the week you mentioned that lack of funding challenges the growth of the witness protection program. But feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Won't monies from the Criminal Proceeds Act supposed to fund the witness protection program? No, actually from the Proceeds of Crime Act it's supposed to support law enforcement and law enforcement is actually, you have customs contributing to it. You have FIA contributing, you have the police contributing to it and we have resources, other resources are needed. For example, we receive some vehicles, we are constantly receiving resources, but the PM has just explained his constraints with finances. So when it comes to witness protection and it is not just simple, it may be one witness, but it spreads to an entire family or friends with that witness. Or you may have one witness but he has a wife or she has a husband, they have a partner, they have children and then you cannot protect this individual and don't protect the others. So it is just witness protection is a program of activities that you must have sufficient funding for. Okay, so on this segment with Commissioner and Prime Minister we'll take two more questions and then we'll move to our next topic. Again, earlier this week you mentioned that the police can only work within their means. So my question to you would be, what are some of the major challenges affecting the police force in arresting crime on Allen? Because I think it's something the public is putting pressure that the police isn't doing enough, isn't doing enough, but can you at least shed some light on what are some of the challenges? Okay, our main challenge is in terms of manpower. We may say that we have 1,300 officers over the island, but when you do the maths, it's how many officers are available on a daily basis? Because you have shifts of officers and not machines, not robots, you work an eight hour shift so you would see that you are dividing your numbers by three. Then you have to cater for days off, you have to cater for vacation and so on and all other types of leave. So in the essence to cover and day by day we see the activities of the police increasing what we have to respond to. So you would see the need for more officers. If we had more officers we would be able to flood every community with officers so that they are present all the time, but we cannot do that. So we have to prioritize, we have to look at what are our urgent needs and then to try to fulfill those needs. So that is the first thing that we are looking for. And also there are things in technology, I know we are receiving gradually, but technology now to fight crime, that is something that is very important. Thank you Commissioner. And last question, we'll go to Miss Taliam. Good morning. The question is for Mr. Commissioner, have any arrests been made with regard to the gun violence which would have been witnessed in broad daylight in 34? Yes, we have had some arrests and actually in terms of the homicides that we've had on Ireland, I think it is 43 recorded homicides on Ireland. We have six of them being solved and within, which suspects have been identified and within forensic results to charge. We have four, in four cases, persons have been charged and are on remand for those offenses. And we also recorded four police shootings. In those four police shootings, three of them have been recommended for an inquest. And there is one matter, this is the one in viewfort with the young school, young students. This matter is we are within advice from the DPP as to the way forward with this particular one. So we are working on all of them. It takes some, sometimes the time might be lengthy, some of them you could do it right away and that is with evidence. What evidence you have? Did eyewitnesses come forward? Did you get a quick match or something of forensic evidence? So all these things take time. Thank you Commissioner and thank you to the members of the media. Prime Minister, do you have any closing remarks for this segmental and citizen security? Yes, just to assure the public of solutions. The government, like all citizens, we are concerned. We are concerned about the prime situation. Our safety as a people cannot be compromised. But with the best will in the world, we have to be able to back it up with resources. Are you trying? I am in the process of signing an agreement that will give the police service 40 new vehicles. The training vote that was stopped by the last government, the training vote that was stopped by the last government, the training vote that was stopped by the last government has been reinstated this year. With $200,000, it could be more, but that's what we have now. We have started a swift justice program. We have put in $2 million in the budget to reduce on the backlog of cases that exist in the system. You heard that there are a number of cases, particularly murder cases that are stuck in the system. We have put in $2 million in what we call a swift justice program. In terms of conditions for the police, we are starting construction on the grocery police station. In terms of conditions for the police, the viewport police station, you must understand that the problem at the viewport police station, in its initial stages, would have cost the solution taxpayer just over $100,000, or let's be fair and see between $120,000. It was left to fester. It was left to fester for years. Without the government at the time spending $100,000 and there was no fuel prices, no fuel prices, there was still revenue from fuel. They allow it to fester and now it's going to cost us over $2 million to repair the viewport police headquarters. We are doing that. In the budget this year, there is money to repair police stations. We are looking into the possibility of drones for the police service. We are trying and we're starting by, as I said, bringing in the RSS to help, but we're seeing if we can increase the numbers in the force. We are trying to boost the morale of the members of the police service. I've met with the welfare and we are discussing plans to stop some of the problems, or to limit some of the problems that exist. So we are trying. I've said to you before that my biggest concern is the security of the country, the economy of the country, and I have a vested interest and I know some people get annoyed when I say that. They say I've seen it enough, but I have a vested interest because I went to school on the money of a police officer. So I have a vested interest in the welfare of the police men and women. So I can assure the public of Senusia that the government, within the resources that are available to us, we are living no stone unturned to see if we can alleviate the situation of crime in the country. But it is a concern and I agree that people are concerned about it. Thank you Prime Minister. And just to close by saying that crime and citizen security is all of our responsibility. And it is citizens who are committing crime and the public is again encouraged to assist the police in their efforts too, for information gathering and also in the tampering of crime scenes, etc. So we too as citizens have a responsibility for our welfare and security. Thank you Commissioner Daisy and thank you Prime Minister for this session. Okay. Commissioner Frito? So welcome back everyone. Commissioner, I will let you have some closing remarks to St Lucia and to our media colleagues. Yes, actually sometime last week we heard of an anti-gang unit and persons are asking what is, what really is an anti-gang unit. Actually the aim of an anti-gang unit and in fact the one we want to introduce to St Lucia is to dismantle any existing gangs or criminal groups in St Lucia. And by doing this it is getting the, we would need to get the intelligence in terms of their networks. For example, I could give you the, for the gun coming into the, in St Lucia. We do not manufacture guns so you could safely say that the guns are coming from the outside and coming in. Whether it is through the illegal parts or the legal parts. So we have to find the information especially through the legal parts where you are trying to dismantle the network because it has to do with networking with the, firstly with the supplier, then you have the shipper. Then if it is coming through the legal means at customs, because that is the place where that is the border, we have customs. So we have to get the information as to how those firearms are coming in so that you could break it. It is sometimes most likely that during the process, during that supply chain, whether it is a courier, whoever customs the brokers, the shippers, somebody or more than one of those channels, there are corrupt practices in there. So we need to identify that. And once you could break one of those channels, then we believe we can safely dismantle the guns. And one of the most crucial part of the anti-gun unit is our FIA, the financial investigative authority, where they would be going at the assets of those persons who are committing the crime. Because crime persons commit crime for profit. And once you are going after their profit, you have dismantled the gun, they would not have the funding required. And also the assistance that they get, whether it be through the law enforcement and so on, once you could identify them. And that is one thing that I will not tolerate. In fact, I'm not tolerating in the force. It is corruption. And I know commissioners before me, they would tell you the same thing. I could give you just in May an officer was dismissed for corrupt practice. And this is once we have the evidence, we have persons saying police are corrupt. But once we must have the information to act upon it. And once you are going to give information to a criminal, gun, I believe you are a criminal. And then you don't deserve to be in the Royal Central Police Force. And a person's officers have come crying. I could understand if a mistake is made, but not for assisting criminals because you are one like them. And then you would be dismissed immediately for that. And the same thing, I want to commend the officers who are out there who are doing their best, especially the SSU are to respond ever so often when gunshots are fired and so on. You leave your, sometimes I have to take officers who are off, ask them to leave home midnight or whatever time to be in certain locations. So I want to commend these officers. The officers from CRB who are on the ground, especially in view for trying to reach the troubled persons. We know that sometimes the crime, it does not affect you personally, but persons fear that at what point it would reach my doorstep. So we have guns being fired all over. At what time I'm astrable, I could hit an elderly person. You have children who cannot sleep because when they go out, they are nightmares in guns firing at them. So these are some of the things that I applaud the officers who are going into the community to do that, the beaten patrol officers who are always present. So just asking the public, I know everybody, we are here in the crime. It is time now for you to act, but it would not take one day to do it. I'm calling upon the social services to continue doing what they are doing and more to come in so that they could address the situation in the islands. Crime is not just what we see. We see guns being fired, but they are deeper problems than that. We need to get down into those problems. We have bringing problems. We have problems of ill discipline. So we need to correct that so that we could see that change. I may even go further to say that we have a problem with parenting in St. Lucia where parents do not give the proper guidance to persons or there would be parents who want to give the proper guidance, but these kids would go out there and then get influenced by other persons. We've had instances where school children have been sponsored by these same criminals. So they lure them into doing whatever they are doing. Why go to school and then spend eight hours on the bench when I could get my sneaker and whether it's your Nike to go to work. So all these things are issues that we need to take care of so that we could see a change in St. Lucia. However, we the police, we are committed into doing it and I know that the government, the prime minister is consulting with me, I'm consulting with him all the time and then what other resources needed and he mentioned the vehicles. I know that is one of the things that would help us a great deal. And that was the press conference held by the office of the prime minister featuring the police commissioner, Mr. Milton Daisy and the prime minister of St. Lucia, the Honorable Philip J. Pierre and they addressed matters of citizen security. I want to thank the audience for watching and please stay tuned to the National Television Network for programming such as this and much more educational and informative programming on government policy. Thank you for watching. Please stay tuned. We'll see you next time.