By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE chairman of the Bahamas National Neighbourhood Watch Council said the body’s relationship with the Royal Bahamas Police Force has gone downhill, causing an increase in crime.

Chairman Keno Wong said the seeming disappearance of liaison officers, who were assigned to communities and helped ensure speedy responses to criminal complaints, has crippled the system.

The council oversees more than 165 neighbourhood watch groups.

Mr Wong said since the relationship with the police force deteriorated over the last year, residents have complained about increased vandalism, housebreaking, and sexual assaults.

“Once the liaison officers were pulled out of the communities, the communities kind of went back on its own and so it’s a struggle now,” he told The Tribune yesterday. “Who do you call? If you call this station, there’s always an issue. If you call 919, they take down the information, and sometimes no one shows up.”

 The presence of officers in the communities was helpful, he said.

“We had a direct contact with them, and we saw the dividends of them getting involved and sending mobile patrols to come in very quickly, or someone from the station may have come in quickly,” he added. “That has stopped, and so what we are pressing for right now is the return of what the programme was designed for, and that was a partnership with the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the community leaders in the National Neighbourhood Watch Programme.”

Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander did not answer messages and calls seeking a response to the criticism yesterday.

 However, Office of the Prime Minister communications director Latrae Rahming said Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis met members of the watch council last year and has an open relationship with Mr Wong.

 “The prime minister understands the importance of community policing in the fight against crime,” he said. “The Office of the Prime Minister will try to get a clearer understanding of whatever breakdown is happening, a clearer understanding of the concerns raised by Mr Keno Wong, but the public could be assured that the prime minister himself said he is an avid supporter and understands the essential work of the programme. He intends to meet with the council early in the new year as part of a multi-pronged approach to crime.”

 The watch programme began under the Minnis administration.

 Mr Wong, a known supporter of the Progressive Liberal Party, said the council fought for neighbourhood watch vehicles, but no one knows where they have gone.

 “We agitated on every level to the former administration to purchase those vehicles and they heard our cry,” he said. “They purchased those vehicles specifically to patrol the neighbourhoods. We don’t even see the vehicles on the streets no more so we don’t even know what they are doing with those vehicles.”

 While Commissioner Fernander has said saturation patrols are a key crime-fighting strategy, Mr Wong said those activities only happen in hot spot areas, leaving some communities without enough police attention.

 “The national neighbourhood watch programme is designed specifically to be the eyes and ears, and to observe and report for the Royal Bahamas Police Force,” he said. “Urban Renewal has its benefits, but the national Neighbourhood Watch Programme is designed to have a broader scope on the development and the majority to understand how to fight this crime issue.”