Prime Minister Perry Christie announced yesterday that his government intends to beef-up the police force’s crime fighting resources.

The announcement came during the commissioning ceremony of the Urban Renewal 2.0 programme.

Mr. Christie said he is serious about fighting crime and expects the re-launch of the multi agency programme to not only fight crime, but also reduce the fear of it.

“Urban Renewal is a living programme; it’s not a textbook programme. It’s a programme that is grounded in the community and the experiences of the community are what dictate how each programme will differ within communities throughout New Providence, and by extension our Family Islands,” he said.

“The reason why I asked for police officers to be involved in this great mission is because of the experience that they have from the streets alone is an education you cannot get in a classroom and you are equipped to deal with all sorts of circumstances.”

Mr. Christie has promised to pump some money behind police’s efforts.

“I’m committed to give you the necessary resources as the minister of finance to have real saturation patrols throughout this island, and by that I mean any young man who leaves from Fox Hill with the intent to shoot someone in the western end of the island will be picked up on his way out there,” Mr. Christie said.

“My commitment is that I am going to have a significant amount of police cars that will be given incrementally. It will be a significant amount of police cars and unmarked cars that will be given to be deployed on the streets of New Providence and Grand Bahama and they will have specific instructions on how to police and how to deal with what they find.”

Former politician and one of the lead advisors for Urban Renewal 2.0 Algernon Allen agreed that monies would be well spent on equipping the programme with the essentials that it needs.
“Urban Renewal makes people feel good about themselves. If a government can put hundreds of millions of dollars into roads, we must be able to pump significant funds behind a programme that seeks to mentor and save lives,” Mr. Allen said.
The government stressed that the programme will not only be used as a machinery tool.

Minister of Social Services Melanie Griffin said it will also provide communities with access to social workers to assist in mending family woes.

“I am so happy to know that we are going to be able to put a social worker in every outreach centre again. They will have hands on interaction with people. When you talk about people-to-people that is what Urban Renewal is all about. It’s about people helping people,” she said.

Urban Renewal 2.0 is comprised of military forces, religious leaders, social workers, community leaders and anyone who wants to volunteer their time and efforts towards fighting crime within their community.

The prime minister is hopeful that the programme will not only blossom in New Providence, but will also mushroom to the Family Islands and produce positive results there as well.

Former Deputy Prime Minister under the previous Christie administration Cynthia Pratt explained why Urban Renewal 2.0 is so important to the entire country.
“There is no reason that we cannot come together and build strong communities throughout the country. Urban Renewal 2.0 has to win, it cannot fail. If Urban Renewal fails, the entire country fails. We depend heavily on Tourism and if tourists refuse to come to our island nation due to high levels of crime, we have lost. Urban Renewal has been put in place to prevent that from happening, so anyone who opposes this programme cannot have the right frame of mind because something like this seeks to benefit the entire country,” Mrs. Pratt said.