During a recently held press conference, Police Chief Mark Collins confirmed that some 180 CCTV cameras are presently being installed across the territory of the Virgin Islands. This comes as welcomed news to businesses and residents after the territory has seen a series of robberies and deadly events in the past months.
These CCTV cameras will be useful in the fight against crime and serve as much needed resources to help strengthen the efforts of the Royal Virgin Islands police force and will be shared amongst all four main islands.
“We’ve started that roll-out already, the fibre optic lines and the cables, and the poles are going up. Of course, there will be another 10 cameras on Virgin Gorda as well and we’ve given the go-ahead to the contractor to start that work as well,” he added.
Also the force sees 10 additional cops on island from outside assisting with ongoing investigations stating, “There are officers from the Cayman Islands here and from the UK. In total it will be up to about 10 officers that are going to assist the RVIPF.”
One of the growing concerns as it pertains to fighting crime in the territory has been its human resources, this will improve as the force will see some 17 new police recruits starting in July, many of whom are locals.
Police Chief Collins added that there are other roles within the force to be filled and he plans to continue the recruitment process in collaboration with the Deputy Governor’s Office.