Late last month the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police, including our own Keithly Benjamin, met in Trinidad and took decisions on four matters relating to criminal activity. The first was to work in partnership with community groups to reduce crime and violence involving young people in the region. The second and third were to develop and implement strategies to deal with illegal firearms in the area. The fourth was to create an awareness of terrorist threats and to maintain a state of vigilance.

The foregoing is in no way an overstatement of the urgent need to protect our region which is regarded as a safe haven for the multitude of tourists coming our way during the tourism season. If our Caribbean region is really to be a get away for our friends seeking relaxation and avoiding the troubled spots of the other side of the world, then we must ensure that each of our islands forms part of a zone of peace.

Unfortunately, perhaps, in the eyes of the international tourist, no one island is particularly seen to be separate and distinct from the other. The Caribbean is regarded as one area and what affects one island is often perceived as affecting all. What lends to this perception is the fact that in some cases the Caribbean is marketed as one destination and not as individual territories. All too often when one island is devastated by a hurricane, for example, it is believed abroad that the entire region has suffered damage. It then becomes necessary for some islands to send out frenzy and explanatory reports stating that all is well and safe on their home-front. Crime and violence in one corner of the region may sometimes have a similar affect on the rest of the area.

The Caribbean Commissioners of Police have stayed too long to look at criminal activity in the region in this way. The violence and deviant behaviour among young people, illegal firearms and other types of crime, over which they are concerned, are common in each island and need to be seriously addressed. We in Anguilla have had our full share of this malady which, thankfully, is abating, giving ease to the mind and reassurance to those who were worried.

There is strength in unity and if the Police Commissioners can do something to help protect the region and its people, then so be it and more power to them. Apart from crime and violence involving the youth and the problem of illegal firearms, the threat of terrorism is a real one and strategies must be put in place to deal with it. The way the world is going and crime is spreading, soon there will be no safe havens.

The Caribbean is vulnerable to everything that affects the international scene positively or negatively. When our region gives birth to negative influences itself, we are worse off by far. We need every regional security system we can think about and as the region struggles to help itself, we are in need of the cooperation of international Governments and agencies to assist in protecting our area from criminals within and without.

It is hoped that the resolutions passed by the Police Commissioners will not merely remain on paper. Follow-up action is a must if the stand they have taken against crime and violence in all of its forms is to mean anything and is to be believed and supported by the people of the region. One way of convincing them would be for the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police to visit the islands to meet the inhabitants and to set up public discussions with the community groups they intend to partner with.

Mr. Benjamin, the Commissioner of Police in Anguilla, has been elected for the second year as Secretary/Treasurer of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police. It should be relatively easy for him to generate some activity on the island in keeping with the objectives of the organisation. With the concern that crime has caused, in recent times, any effort to further boost police/community cooperation and to keep the island in a relative safe position may pay off. It is recognised however that the people have an important cooperative role to play in this matter. They must stand up and be counted.

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