NASSAU, The Bahamas — Officials from the Centreville Urban Renewal Project Office took to the streets of the Centreville community in full force Tuesday, holding discussions with businesspersons and shoppers, while passing out flyers to motorists, in a bid to reduce crime and criminality in the area.
The campaign is also part of the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s overall Project Safe Bahamas Programme. Police Officials from the Centreville Urban Renewal Project Office, were accompanied by members of their Community Volunteer group — a 50-member-strong group of volunteer residents. The volunteers also accompany police officials on their daily walk-a-bouts and visits with the elderly in the community.
Inspector Ricardo Richardson, Officer-in-Charge of the Centreville Urban Renewal Project Office, Police Division, said the operation was part of the Centre’s focus on being proactive in and attempt to reduce any possible incidences of auto theft, auto break-ins, armed robberies and shop break-ins.
Inspector Richardson said the campaign is also inline with Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade’s mandate of prevention.
“The Centreville area is a high-volume, highly trafficked area in terms of the number of businesses that operate in the area and the large numbers of pedestrian, vehicular and other kinds of traffic that access those businesses, shops and stores on a daily basis, and so we figured this was a great opportunity for us to be proactive in our operations with regard to prevention,” Inspector Richardson said.
“This is also a time of year when many parents and/or guardians are finalising most of their Back-to-School shopping and when businesses are having, or are wrapping up their Back-to-School promotions. This gave us an excellent opportunity to speak with those shoppers to discuss ways to protect their automobiles, valuables and purchases — lessons they can practice throughout the year and so this was a great opportunity to do some policing from the prevention side of it,” Inspector Richardson added.
Inspector Richardson said the discussions with business-owners covered a number of areas designed to help them protect their businesses against armed robberies and break-ins.
“Many times criminals sit back, watch and wait until the opportunity is right to strike before they do so,” Inspector Richardson said. “We discussed measures businesses can follow to eliminate that window of opportunity and to overall sensitise the businesspersons as to exactly what it is they need to do in order to reduce their chance of being robbed.”
Tuesday’s operation followed on the heels of a Crime Prevention Symposium for the Elderly that was hosted by the Centreville Urban Renewal Project Centre at the Centreville Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
Inspector Richardson said the symposium allowed Police Officials to address a number of areas in which crimes are being committed against seniors, especially from a financial perspective.
“For example, there are a number of persons who try to take advantage of our seniors when it comes to the National Insurance Contributions or some other subsistence they may be receiving and so we wanted to address that issue, along with a number of other areas of concern,” Inspector Richardson said.
“The symposium was very well attended and our presenters did an outstanding job in disseminating vital information to keep our seniors safe and so I was very happy with the result of that symposium,” Inspector Richardson added.
By Matt Maura
Bahamas Information Services
Caption: Attorney Niko Mosko, a businessman in the Centreville community, presents a cheque to Corporal Christine Allen of the Centreville Urban Renewal Project Office to assist with outfitting members of the Centreville Citizens on Patrol Unit with uniforms. The presentation followed a Crime Prevention blitz in the area Tuesday. Inspector Ricardo Richardson, Officer-in-Charge of the Centreville Urban Renewal Project Office is pictured (front right) along with members of the Citizens on Patrol Unit. (BIS Photo/Raymond Bethel)
