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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
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Where Are the Police?

Dear Source:
I agree with Eric Saul's letter. Police could also better protect and preserve if they got out of their cars in town and patrolled on foot or on bicycles. Driving is a full-time job on this island. I don't know how the police or anyone else can see what is suspicious while driving without getting into an accident.
Foot/bicycle patrols in at-risk neighborhoods can accomplish two important goals of a committed police force: get to know the people in the neighborhood and see when something is amiss.
When I go up Garden Street, I see and smell the clouds of marijuana smoke on the corner north of Back Street by a bar. There is normally a vehicle illegally parked across from the laundry where there is a No Parking sign; I never see it ticketed.
One Monday night during the Cathedral Church of All Saints' Bible Study class, we heard two cars chasing each other the wrong way up Garden Street and a few minutes later they came down the street; they must have been going 60 mph. Neither was a police car. I looked out the window but they went by so fast, I couldn't identify them. Had any of us been going to our cars, we would have been run over.
Earlier this year, our church had a Blessing of the Seas procession, accompanied by a police escort. After returning to the church, the escort left. One of our members drove down Garden Street and as she arrived next to the laundry, a woman came running out and jumped in her car. She asked to be taken to the hospital – she was the victim of an attempted rape.
If private individuals can see these problems, where are the eyes of the police? Does being proactive mean anything?

Dena Langdon
St. Thomas

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