By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE Royal Bahamas Police Force is set to receive $2 million in new vehicles according to Prime Minister Perry Christie.

During his 2013/2014 budget communication in parliament yesterday, Mr Christie said the acquisition of the cars is just one of many measures to be implemented in the fight against crime.

He said: “Crime is generally trending downward, but we have more work to do. I wish to highlight that the government is allocating $2 million in this budget for the acquisition of new police vehicles in the coming fiscal year.

“This permits the round-the-clock presence of the police on our streets to be seen and felt. Another portion of our citizen security programme is that what citizens will have noted is the installation of CCTV in the down town and over-the-hill areas. This programme will continue to expand in the next fiscal year.”

However, opposition MP for the St Anne’s constituency, Hubert Chipman, believes that instead of buying new patrol cars each year, the government should allocate taxpayer funds for a compound where damaged police vehicles can be repaired.

“What we need to start doing,” Mr Chipman said, “is investing in a nice police compound where we actually are repairing these vehicles instead of continuing to invest in new vehicles.

“The new vehicles probably will end up in another three to four months on the side of road.

“Then we are faced again with another two, four, five, million dollars.”

FNM MP for Central Grand Bahama Neko Grant urged Bahamians to visit the RBPF’s compound on Thompson Boulevard, where he said scores of cars are parked and non-operational.

Some of the Force’s newest vehicles, he said, are already in bad shape.

The government, from 2012 to 2014, intends to spend in excess of $8 million on upgrades to the police force. There are also plans to increase the RBPF’s complement by more than 450 new officers.

“The Force will more than triple the size of its recruitment and training class to 100 officers from the usual complement of 30,” Mr Christie said.