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HomeNewsArchivesPUERTO RICO PLAN EYED AS MODEL FOR ST. CROIX.

PUERTO RICO PLAN EYED AS MODEL FOR ST. CROIX.

Feb. 5, 2003 – The fight against crime on St. Croix is an ongoing issue — but some members of the private sector are jumping into the fray and looking toward Puerto Rico for help.
A group of police officials and community leaders met in Frederiksted late last month to talk about ways of formulating an anti-crime plan for St. Croix that replicates one implemented in Puerto Rico last year.
"Crime is not a police problem alone," Hortense Rowe, former chief of staff for former Sen. Adelbert Bryan, said. "It's a community problem."
Rowe and St. Croix Alive's Simone Palmer have been active since last fall in studying the viability of Puerto Rico's 82-page anti-crime plan and met with the governor and police officials at Government House in Christiansted last November to hash over its contents.
Rowe, who translated the plan from Spanish, said it clearly outlines how every segment of the community networks to minimize criminal activity — engendering cooperation among government agencies and the private sector. She said earlier meetings on Puerto Rico garnered a commitment from that government to assist the Virgin Islands in formulating its own plan.
Puerto Rican officials said they would be willing to make police training facilities and surplus officers available, Rowe said. She said the commonwealth has some 3,000 trained officers on a waiting list for employment.
Police Chief Novelle Francis said St. Croix needs a hundred more police officers right now. But hiring them, he said, would add $5 million a year to the department's budget, money it does not have.
After the group met with Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, Rowe said, he agreed to prepare a memorandum of understanding that the territory and Puerto Rico would work cooperatively on the effort. The MOU is still being worked on, she said.
In the meantime, she said, private sector interests will try to come up with funding to get Police Department staffing where it needs to be. "We'll be going after federal and private sources," she said. "We have an emergency, and we need to find agencies who underwrite social programs for crime prevention. I feel it just might be necessary to get on a plane and hit the pavement running for an appeal to the U.S. government."
Palmer, who chairs St. Croix Alive's Crime Control and Prevention Task Force, said the slowness of the administration to respond with action is not helping the situation. "I haven't seen the MOU promised at that meeting," she said. "It's just the same level of inertia and procrastination; meanwhile, a lot of stuff going on is not at all pleasant."
In other preliminary meetings with government agency officials, including those of the Labor and Education Departments, Palmer said, there was a strongly positive response to suggestions that people work together to fight crime. "Crime is a societal disease, not just a policing issue," she said.
Francis said he appreciates the efforts. "The Police Department cannot do it by ourselves," he said. "We certainly welcome the assistance of the private sector in helping meet some of our needs."
According to Francis, Puerto Rico's plan takes a holistic approach to law enforcement, but it was implemented only about eight months ago and no tangible results are yet available.
He said if funding were to become available, he would need for about half of the 100 officers to come from Puerto Rico, while the others could be hired locally.
However, officials from Puerto Rico have suggested that the territory double the size of its police force.
"We know we have needs, but we don't have funding to go along with openings for positions," Francis said.

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