As the Director of the U.S. Virgin Islands Law Enforcement Planning Commission (LEPC), I fully understand that community safety is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of any society. It provides the foundation upon which families thrive, businesses invest, schools educate, neighborhoods prosper, and communities build public confidence in their future.
When most people think about community safety, they naturally think about law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, prosecutors, courts, corrections professionals, and the broader criminal justice system. These institutions perform indispensable roles and deserve our continued respect and support.
However, to truly aspire to build safer communities, we must recognize a broader reality: community safety begins long before a crime is committed or an emergency call is answered. It begins with healthy children and stable families. It begins with educational opportunity, meaningful employment, quality healthcare, affordable housing, behavioral health services, strong neighborhoods, and communities that reduce risk before tragedy occurs.
The safest communities are not simply those that respond effectively to crises — they are those that continue to invest in preventing them.
In keeping with Gov. Albert Bryan Jr.’s Vision 2040 framework for community safety, that understanding led to a year-long examination of three issues that I believe will significantly influence the future of the U.S. Virgin Islands: violent crime and community safety, youth development, and healthcare. Although these subjects are often discussed independently, they are deeply interconnected. Many of the factors that influence violence also influence educational success, economic mobility, family stability, and long-term health outcomes. Lasting community safety cannot be achieved by addressing any one of these challenges in isolation.
Over the coming weeks, LEPC will release three comprehensive planning and policy development reports that examine these issues from different—but closely related—perspectives.
The first examines homicide dynamics, drug trafficking, and community safety in the U.S. Virgin Islands over several decades. It analyzes long-term trends, explores the relationship between drug trafficking and serious violence, identifies the underlying drivers of homicide, and presents evidence-informed recommendations to strengthen public safety and improve strategic decision-making.
The second examines approximately three decades of youth prevention and intervention efforts throughout the territory. It traces the evolution of federal investments supporting youth development, violence prevention, substance misuse prevention, delinquency reduction, behavioral health, and related initiatives. It reviews major federal funding streams, examines how those resources have been invested across government and community organizations, identifies successful strategies and persistent gaps, and offers recommendations for strengthening a more coordinated and sustainable prevention system or framework for the Virgin Islands.
The third is a comprehensive four-volume assessment of healthcare in the U.S. Virgin Islands spanning 1995 through 2025. Together, the volumes examine the evolution of the territory’s healthcare system; healthcare financing, affordability, insurance coverage, hospitals and the healthcare workforce; behavioral health and public health; medical leakage; uncompensated and under-compensated care; health disparities; healthcare infrastructure; implications on public safety; and strategic recommendations for building a more accessible, affordable, resilient, and sustainable healthcare system.
Healthcare is often viewed primarily through the lens of hospitals and insurance. Yet, it is equally a community safety issue. Accessible behavioral health services, trauma care, treatment for substance misuse and other healthcare services contribute to stronger families and safer communities.
Increasingly, researchers and policymakers recognize that the social determinants of health substantially overlap with the social determinants of crime and community safety. Poverty, educational attainment, employment opportunities, housing stability, family and community connectedness, exposure to trauma, access to healthcare, neighborhood conditions, and economic mobility function as both risk and protective factors.
In addition to their influence on health outcomes, they also influence the likelihood of victimization, violence, substance misuse, and involvement with the criminal justice system. Investing in these underlying conditions is not only good health policy, it also is smart public safety policy.
Taken together, this body of work advances a simple but important proposition: community safety is not the responsibility of any single institution. It is the product of coordinated investments in public safety, youth development, healthcare and other areas that strengthen communities and work toward shared goals.
These reports were prepared as planning and policy development resources intended to encourage informed public discussion, support strategic planning, and contribute to evidence-informed policymaking. They are not intended to assign blame, rather to help identify practical opportunities to strengthen the systems that protect and improve the lives of Virgin Islanders.
The hope is that this body of work contributes to thoughtful dialogue about how we can continue to enhance community safety in the territory.
More importantly, it is our hope that these reports help us to build upon what has worked, honestly acknowledge where improvement is needed and provide practical options for moving forward.
Community safety begins long before the crime occurs.
— Moleto A. Smith Jr. is the director of the U.S. Virgin Islands Law Enforcement Planning Commission (LEPC), member of Gov. Albert Bryan Jr.’s Cabinet and Chief Criminal Justice Policy Advisor to the Governor. The three forthcoming planning and policy development reports: Homicide Dynamics, Drug Trafficking and Community Safety in the U.S. Virgin Islands; Thirty Years of Federal Investment in Youth Prevention and Intervention in the U.S. Virgin Islands; and the four-volume The State of Healthcare in the U.S. Virgin Islands, 1995–2025, are intended to encourage informed public discussion and support planning and policy development. The views expressed are those of the author.
Editor’s Note: Opinion articles do not represent the views of the Virgin Islands Source newsroom and are the sole expressed opinion of the writer. Submissions can be made to visource@gmail.com.
