Police/L.I.U. Interventions for Rivero Street Area

Chester Williams

This afternoon, ComPol Chester Williams, along with members of the Leadership Intervention Unit, was out in the Rivero Street area speaking with residents, as well as the Matura family. Tension has been building in the area and the commissioner says that there will be increased police presence.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The area is becoming of concern to us and so we are here speaking to the people to get some feedback and as well as to tell them what are some of the plans we have in place to be able to address their security concerns. We want the people to know that their concerns is not going unnoticed. And that as a department, working in tandem with LIU, we will do what needs to be done to address the issue. We had put in place a number of mechanisms in this area to make sure that crime is kept under control. But recently the area came back on the radar. We were more focused on other areas, but we had not forgotten or neglected the area because we do have a presence at the corner of Kraal Road and Rivero Street. But again, you’d know that the criminals tend to work around the police, but what we will do now, I had spoken to the security company and we are going to install more surveillance cameras in the area. Also, we have to look at making sure that the police officers who are working in the area do not just stay under a booth, but that they come out and patrol, moving around the area and do more stop and search. I’ve said to the GI3 that we need to go hard on those persons who continue to make our job more difficult. While yes the LIU is there and many may sit and say even with LIU, crime is being committed. We don’t expect that through the effort of the police department and LIU, we will stop crime; we do not expect that. We’d be naive to think so. But at the same time, it is important to note that with the work that we are doing, it should reduce crime and it is reducing crime. And so for those who may use this to say that LIU is not working, we can still look at the record to see that crime, particular murders or violent crimes are on a downward trend. Parenting is a component. It cannot be that people will expect that the police and LIU will tell parents how to raise their children. We do expect that parents are going to be more accountable and are going to hold their children more accountable when they do wrong.”