 This afternoon is a simple but significant ceremony because I can assure you that the fiscal situation of the government had to be tweaked and had to be prioritized for us to get $1.06 million to buy vehicles for the police. It's not a situation that the government can afford. We cannot afford. But it was important that we made a statement to the police that we cared about them and we cared about their conditions of work. And this is why I want to thank my cabinet for agreeing to prioritize expenditure even before the budget to get $1 million to spend on the police service. And this is not the beginning of the improvement of conditions of work for the police. I want to tell you quite boldly that once we use what we have correctly, you will be getting more vehicles because I know you deserve more vehicles. So you will be getting more vehicles but a condition that you use what you have wisely and you use it as if it was yours. I was speaking to the police eye command this week and I said to them the matter of fighting crime on the work of police officers ought to be not only a duty but a vocation. It ought to be something that you want to leave a legacy that I was a member of the police force when criminal activity in this country was reduced to zero on year zero. A legacy that you can tell your children that I was part of it. I caused St Lucia to be a safer place and I caused the people of St Lucia to work and live and make our country one of the best places to work and live in the world. And the way you achieve that is by ensuring that there is a secure country. And it must be looked upon as a job. It must be looked upon as if something that you do to make the government or to make the prime minister look good. When most of you will be there, I will not be prime minister because you have a security of tenor. I have no security of tenor. People decide my faith every five years or sometimes if you in Barbados every three years. So I very well know that my faith depends on people. No one has to remind me. I need no reminder. What I know is once the people have entrusted me with the confidence and I want to thank them for that. Once they have allowed me, the people of St Lucia, to have the confidence to be in a position where I can administer the governance of this country, I will do it without fear and favor to the best of my ability for the well-being of the majority. And the well-being of the majority means that we must have a safe and secure country for us to live in. So I will spend no efforts within the limits of the fiscal constraints that we live with to improve your conditions. So this year, and I say this year with emphasis, we are going to commence construction of the Grozile police station. The Grozile police station is a station six years too late. But it's going to start this year and I've been told that the construction time will be a little less than 18 months. So if God spares our lives and the people of St Lucia spare our lives, we will be opening a brand new police quarters in the town of Grozile if not at the end of 2022 in the first quarter of 2023. We are also going to be, and I've just discussed with the attorney general, we are finalizing the agreement with Naipo to repair the view fort police station. That agreement is going to be finalized very soon and Naipo has promised that they are ready to commence work on the view fort or the southern headquarters of the police fort. So we are going to start that this year and it's going to continue hopefully understand that the construction time maybe about 12 months. So the police officers in the south, you are going to have better conditions of work very soon. There has been a lot of criticism about the police, criticism about the police high command. And everyone knows that many people are saying that the government's actions have been too slow when it comes to the police service. But I want to tell you that part of my philosophy is allowing every man and woman a chance to prove themselves wrong. I start with trusting you until you cause me to distrust you. And I always say to my colleagues that I'm not in the business of reading any man or woman's heart. That's what my father taught me. So I never try to imagine people's motives or people's heart. I can't, I never will and no one will. I can only act on your actions. I can only act on how you behave. I can only act on what you produce. And that is how I will measure the police service on the actions and the production, not on anybody's heart. I can't promise you that. Apart from not being a heart surgeon, it's impossible to read anybody's heart. So I will not try to interpret anybody's motives. I challenge the police high command and the officers to improve the crime situation in the country. And they want the tools to do it. I will provide the tools. These are not going to be the only vehicles that you're going to get. We are going to produce more vehicles to you this year. Because what we ask for you is from you is commitment. What we ask from you is every day you put your uniforms or you go to work. You go to work with a purpose of improving the quality of life for yourself, your children and the country. Because at some point if the crime continues, it will reach your doorstep. It might reach yours personally, but it will reach your friend, your cousin, your family, it will reach you. So you have a moral duty to ensure that by your actions and by the work you do, not for the prime minister, not for me, not for the government, not for the ministers, for yourself and for your country, you give a fair day's work for a fair day's speed. I know that your conditions could be better. But I want to tell you that's the history of our government to improve the conditions of the men and women of the police force. We were the ones who built all the new police stations in Selusha today. I can say that without any fear or favor. We were the ones who built the Mashan police station. We were the ones who built the two police stations in Denri. We were the ones who will build the grocery police station. So when it comes to understanding the conditions of work under which policemen live and work, work in particular, we know about it. And this government will continue, will continue to work so that you can have better conditions. So it's up to you, it's up to you. It's up to you to a pride and dignity. It's up to you to understand that you have to work together. This cannot be a business of territory or territorial or this is my section. This is his and I can't interfere in it. We cannot run the police force as silos. We cannot run the police force where we are hoping that somebody will fail so we can succeed. Failure for one is failure for all. So if somebody fails and you think that you succeed because somebody fails, all of us fail together. So I want you to take this handover, this $1.06 million which we spent as just the government, it's not a favour, it's the government's commitment to you so that you in turn can improve the conditions, can improve the quality of life in this country. And the quality of life depends on how safe people are. Telusia used to be a place where you could, on evenings, relax on the beach with your family. I hope so, your family. You can relax on the beach with your family. It used to be a place where people used to go window shopping. Now all the stores are covered. You can't even see what's there. It's a place where people used to go and sit on the Derek Walker Square. We need to be able to bring back that quality of life to Telusia. Telusia cannot be a place where you are afraid. And it's up to you. The onus is on you to bring that life back. We can bring it back. They are countries in the region where we brought it back. Sometimes we speak about Singapore. The first situation in Singapore was they did two things. They cleaned the country and they saw about law and order. A country without law and order, regardless of all the strides that you make economically, if there is no law and order, if there is not security of person, the country will not be a good place to live. So this home invasion thing must stop. I was appalled that there could have been a home invasion in one of the most popular places in Telusia. And I know weaknesses are afraid to come forward as a short decommission of police that this year he's going to get more resources for your weakness protection program. Because you can't have a situation where people see a crime is committed. They keep quiet because they are afraid that they get injured if they bear testimony. That cannot be right. It cannot be right. So the police, their weakness protection program will be strengthened. But the public themselves must put a hand as they see. The public has expect that the police will be the eyes and the ears of everywhere, for everywhere. And there's a lot of criticism. Sometimes the criticism of the police is warranted. But we cannot blame if one policeman does something wrong to blame the entire police force for the inactions of one policeman. And the police themselves, by their behavior, must show a level of empathy and a level of professionalism because you are very important and powerful people. Any man or woman who can take some body's freedom for 72 hours is a powerful person, very powerful. And when you have that uniform or you take that oath, you become extremely powerful. So you have to use that power with prudence and temperance and showing that it is for the benefit of all the people. So this afternoon, Mr. Commissioner, this is just the beginning of the improvement of the working conditions for the members of your force. I want to thank my cabinet colleagues for understanding that this government deals with priorities. And if you notice, the first people we bought vehicles for is for the police and we kept the old vehicles that we inherited. And that is significant because we have used vehicles and you have new ones. That is how important we take you and the members of your service. So everybody must understand our commitment to law and order. And we are not going to be going about the police boasting and beating our chairs. We think that the police, they deserve it. So the police cannot be put in a situation where they have to get their requirements from dinners. That is how good and well-being these may be. The government must make a conscious effort using the resources of the state to put law and order first and regardless of the constraints, we will have to find the resources plus dinners if you want. But we have to have the resources to improve your conditions of service. Thank you very much for the work that you've been doing. I know that the public expects a lot more from you. I want you to live up to these expectations. The government will support you. So I want you from today to have a more unified police force. Each policeman must watch his brother's back. That is the essence of your business. Watch each other's back. And I said before, it cannot be let him fail for me to succeed. I thank you very much.