Consultant being sought for VI’s crime summit

The government is seeking a consultant to help draft a national anti-crime strategy as part of preparations for its upcoming crime summit, Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has confirmed.

The Premier said the summit will bring together government departments, law enforcement agencies and the wider community to address the causes of crime and create solutions. He explained that the event will look beyond policing to examine education, social support, immigration and customs enforcement.

“This is what we expect to come out of this anti-crime summit — a strategy,” Dr Wheatley stated. “Of course we have what the police are already doing, we have what education is already doing, we have what immigration is already doing, customs already, everybody is doing their part. But what we want to do is come together as a whole society in our individual respective roles and to analyse where are the gaps and have a strategy to address those gaps so that we can better mitigate against crime and persons who are going down the wrong path.”

The Premier explained that the initiative had been taken to the National Security Council and would be treated as a government-wide effort. “What we would hope would come out of this, or what will come out of this I should say, is an anti-crime strategy and a steering group that will seek to implement the recommendations of that strategy,” Wheatley said.