Community Value highlighted by Police Commissioner at Blue Hills town meeting  

Danae Dennie

Intern

#TurksandCaicos, July 19, 2024 – “The community delivers 80% of the ability of the police force. It means therefore if we don’t have the community the most we can put forward to you is about 20% of our effort.”

These were the statements made by Commissioner of Police Edvin Martin who was speaking at a town hall for Blue Hills and Wheeland on July 2^nd, 2024. This meeting was held to allow the community to share their concerns and bring recommendations to the RTCIPF.

During the meeting many issues were brought up such as the murder rate, illegal immigration traffic congestion and the understaffed police force.

The main theme being pushed by the officers was the importance of community support.

As the issue was raised by a resident of the area, Commissioner Martin shared statistics on illegal immigration.  He said the TCI was experiencing a 60%  decline in the number of  illegal or irregular immigrants intercepted.

“Last year it was just over 4,000 persons, for this year so far it’s about 826. We are down by about 60%. We are not out of the woods as yet as it is it still happening….We cannot eliminate these issues without the help of the community,” said Martin.

Superintendent Dwight Gardiner, overseeing Providenciales and Community Policing areas of the Force communicated the RTCIPF’s plans. He agreed that murders and illegal immigration are huge issues and expressed the importance of the Force being visible during these times. He said that serious crime was reduced in Blue Hills in 2019-2020 due to visibility.

To mitigate these crimes, they have increased patrols in Blue Hills with uniformed and tactical officers as well as CID Officers. He said that they want to boost engagement.

They want to build partnerships by speaking to members in the community, working with the church, supporting community events and doing impact assessments. They want to push the D.A.R.E programmes back in schools and will have Police Action week in collaboration with the sports commission.

Gardiner reassured the public that they will be improving.

“We are going to continue to evolve. We do listen to your comments.”

During the question and answer segment, Willah Gray, a member of the Blue Hills council shared that a lot of the recommendations were set three years ago such as putting up more lights and increasing patrols. He shared that the community needs an increase in police presence in the district.

The RTCIPF is ‘On demand and under equipped’.

Mr. Gray made a call for a training school within the Turks and Caicos, highlighted the high frequency of illegal migrants in the Northwest Point area, including landings which have gone undetected by authorities.  There was also highlight of the issue of traffic congestion with a recommendation to add police officers to direct traffic.

In response, Commissioner Martin encourages the public to ‘police the police’ when they are not doing what is necessary.  The recently installed police commissioner expressed agreement with the need for increased police presence and traffic management.