Terrified Carenage residents call for proper policing

Several Carenage residents are harbouring fears for their safety as a result of the absence of “adequate policing” in the area. Since November of last year the 150-year-old Carenage police station has been relatively void of police officers since officers attached to the severely dilapidated station were relocated to the Four Roads police Station. Presently there is a single sentry who takes reports and relays information to the Four Roads Station.

The Carenage Station is frequently visited by senior officers and there are intermittent patrols by E-999 vehicles in the area. Residents are however dissatisfied with this level of policing. According to one resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “in a community like this there is a need for police to be constantly displaying their authority. This would keep the criminal element in the area at bay.” There has been a gradual upswing in the incidence of crime in the area since the officers left in November. This is in accordance with the assertions of senior officers, who were attached to the station at the time, who said that the situation would result in a “field-day” for bandits. Within the period since the abandonment of the station the reported incidents of serious crime in the area include a sexual assault in November, several shootings including the shooting of a 61-year-old man last Wednesday night and the execution style murder of a 24-year-old fisherman one day later.

One family was recently robbed at gunpoint of several items in their home and a similar fate befell their neighbours who fortunately weren’t at home at the time that their home was robbed. Residents also say that promises by Junior National Security Minister Anthony Roberts and then Ag Commissioner of Police Everald Snaggs that thesituation would have been rectified by January have remained unfulfilled to date. Regarding this, 51-year-old George Harris, of School Street Carenage told Newsday, “they only promise things to keep us quiet, but they don’t really mean what they say.

“Every time you walk past the station all you see is one office and many times when you call the station’s number you get no response. People getting killed, beaten, robbed and you only see a police car every once in a while. We can’t even walk in the road anymore.” One senior officer attached to the station gave Newsday a tour of the building which has been repaired but in a “hap-hazard” manner as the wooden structure has simply been reinforced with putty and other temporary materials and repainted. Tension between officers attached to the station and several high ranking officers has resulted in the repeated postponement of the re-opening of the station.