Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade admitted on Monday that he is “concerned” about the levels of crime in the country and stressed the need for more assistance from the public.
“I’m not frustrated, but I’m very concerned,” he told reporters in a press conference held yesterday at Police Headquarters.
“There are things that are happening in the country on a daily basis. People are committing offences and re-offending against citizens and every person in this country of adult age has a fair understanding of what our challenges are. The commissioner can not solve some of those problems. I have a role to play as a law enforcement professional and I command the force where we work extremely hard and we are encouraging our people everyday to do the best they can.”
Commissioner Greenslade said he is satisfied “beyond a doubt” that officers are doing significant work.
“This is the only administration that sends you, without any prompting, frequent crime reports,” he said.
“We hide nothing from you. We document all of the work that we do. These officers are working hard but we have some issues that we cannot solve ourselves. I will give you a classic case which is going to cause a problem for some people. A person commits a serious crime where someone dies. We arrest and charge the person and take them to court and within a short period of time we see that same perpetrator again and who murders another person. He now has two murder charges.”
He said that person would be arrested and taken to court again only to receive bail.
According to the commissioner, instances like these happen to frequently.
Commissioner Greenslade also told reporters about a man who they are eagerly trying to find.
“We have a young man running around New Providence firing a gun,” he said.
“He is referred to on the streets as ‘Lil D’. Please tell me why people in the community will not tell us where this man is or where he’s sleeping? I want every police officer and every member of the public to help us find this man. He is not alone. Many of these suspects we are seeking have killed people and if we don’t take them out of your communities we will have more problems. We have to draw a line in the sand with the respect of these people.”
