ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, Apr. 24, CMC – Acting Commissioner of Police Randy Connaught says in 2024 Grenada recorded an increase in overall crimes by 1.6% when compared to the previous year, 2023 but that increase is not reflected in the major crimes category but in the area of petty crimes and property crimes.
“This increase is in respect to petty crimes such as obscene language, threatening language and other misdemeanours,” Connaught told the media during a news conference on Thursday.
He further explained that the force had a solvency rate of 74.8% of all crimes reported
“This success rate is among the highest in the region. The goal for 2025 is to take the solvency rate up to 80%,” he said before the Head of Crimes in the Force shared more details about the strategies that will be adapted.
According to ACP Vannie Curwin, Head of Crimes of the Royal Grenada Police Force says the Force will be employing the use of technology-based devices to fight and reduce crimes on the island and that will include several new initiatives which includes expanding its Drones Unit.
“We are employing broad based technology in the field of crime fighting. There are a number of things that we will be doing in 2025 that we have not done prior, there are a number of initiatives and technologies we will employ in 2025 as we move forward,” Curwen said in a news conference on Thursday 24th April 2024.
“One of those is the expansion of our drones unit, I do not want to delve too deeply into this because there are some sensitives in talking about technology that we employ, so I will just say that we will be expanding our drone unit,” said Curwen who explained that the RGPF do not require any legal instrument to operate drones as part of its crime fighting strategy.
Grenada has no law or policy as it pertains to the use of drones for private or state use but private owners are required to register their drones with the Police. In September 2024, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told the Parliament that through the Ministry of National Security, Grenada will develop rules and policies pertaining to the use of drones and these guidelines will focus on identifying no fly zones.
“Drone technologies are revolutionising the world,” said Mitchell, who is also the Minister for National Security. “Within the national security apparatus, we have to create the rules and policies to regulate the use of drones and the Police itself need to be equipped with drones that can allow them to fight, detect and prevent crime,” Mitchell told the House while justifying the request of EC$530,000 for the Police in the 2024 supplemental budget.
That funding was allocated to purchase law enforcement equipment to assist the Police with solving crimes.
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