 In an holistic approach to citizen safety, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Royal St. Lucia Police Force have embarked on a series of consultations aimed at tackling crime at the community level. Anise Antoine reports. The Performance, Management and Delivery Unit, PMDU, has partnered with the Royal St. Lucia Police Force in the area of citizen safety with the aim of reducing the serious crime rate in St. Lucia. The RSLPF recently held a meeting with various community groups in Grosjele, geared towards forming a closer partnership between the two entities. Elvis Thomas is the acting assistant superintendent of police and the officer in charge of the Grosjele, Rodney Bay and Babono Police stations. We've realized that the issue of crime and violence is not just a police problem, but it is a situation where the police and all the stakeholders can come together to dialogue, to discuss issues relating to crime and violence. So at the end of the day, we can have safer and peaceful communities. The acting assistant superintendent of police informed that the RSLPF will be working closely with community groups to ensure that each community has an active neighborhood watch group. We have those communities with no neighborhood watch groups. We will work with them to establish these groups to ensure that our communities are safer. We are also working with the businesses to ensure that these businesses are safer. And so as a nation, we want to ensure that persons can walk and live freer and so that they are safe. We know that there is a fear of crime and so we want persons to understand that the Royal St. Lucia Police force will do everything within its power to keep St Lucia and St Lucia safe. Sharon Gardner, Hippolyte Head of PMDU, noted that the aspiration for 2019 was to reduce crime by 10%. Because the police had been taking very specific action that was basically targeted from the data that they collected. As a result, over the next few weeks and few months, the rates of crime then moved out to different areas and the police adjusted and then also took again very specific action. Our serious crime rate is now at about 4% and the police are again taking very specific actions in relation to reducing crime. Some of it has to do with targeted patrols but they also want to be able to reach out to the community and they are starting with the Grozile community because Grozile is one of our hotspot areas in relation to crime. The final community program for Grozile will take place on Tuesday 7th January 2020. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Antoine reporting.