By Kenton Chance
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Jan 19, CMC – Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves says the EC$1.85 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) national budget approved by Parliament last Friday will greatly enhance national security in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Ralph Gonsalves government has increased the recurrent budget for the Ministry of National Security by seven million EC dollars and also raised the capital budget spending by 74.6 per cent.
It said that EC$16.4 million or 2.3 per cent of the capital budget goes to public order and safety, with the Finance Minister indicating that the increase does not include to the funds to be spent on repairing police stations.
He said that the fiscal package provides for the expansion of the top brass of the Royal St. St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force that will include an additional assistant commissioner of police, two superintendents of police, two assistant superintendents of police and four inspectors.
In the middle and lower ranks, there are four more station sergeants, four sergeants and eight corporals.
Gonsalves said that the changes in the government’s approach to citizen’s security go well beyond a cursory discussion of the numbers and that while he cannot disclose details about police operations, acting Commissioner of Police Enville Williams has been instructed to reform the police force.
“The budget is about security,” Gonsalves said, noting that he is not privy to certain things because he is not the minister of national security.
“… but to the extent that I am privy to some of the reforms that the Commissioner of Police has planned in terms of operationalising his troops, his force, deploying his force, using scientific methods, equipping his force with tools and equipment that are superior to that of the criminals on the street, I think I said enough for them to understand that a major reform is underway within the police force,” Gonsalves said.
He said the reform will make the police “more nimble and more able to be dispatched and deployed to respond to criminal activities and potential….
“I can’t come in here and disclose tactical information. First of all, I don’t know it; but to the extent that I know it, I wouldn’t come here and talk it on television for criminals to hear.
“But if you see suddenly that we are increasing the ranks in the top brass, that we’re putting more money into equipping certain types of equipment, whatever euphemism we use in the budget to explain what it is, you’re going to come and say nothing nah go on in crime prevention?” Gonsalves said, speaking partly in the vernacular.
He said the government was also making social interventions that are in and of themselves, crime-fighting measures.
“This budget is about security, and I ain’t talking about the police stations that we’re fixing and sprucing up and all the rest,” he said.
The police have said that crime is on the decline overall, even as homicide statistics are trending upward. The country had record number of homicides in 2022 and 2023, when 42 and 55 people were killed, respectively, followed by 54 last year.
The trend continues even as three out of every four homicides in the country over the last decade has gone unsolved.
In the budget address, Gonsalves said law-abiding citizens are entitled to feel secure and protected in their daily lives.
“The safety and security of those law-abiding citizens is a prerequisite for sustainable development and an imperative for Government action,” he said, telling legislators that this year’s budget invests in direct crime-fighting measures, in reform of crime-fighting structures, and in implementing community-building and youth-focussed interventions that promise to have social benefits and anti-crime effects.
“Budget 2025 makes it possible to be aggressive and activist in tackling crime and the causes of crime in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, while being respectful of other citizen security mandates.
“There is absolutely no debate that every right-thinking Vincentian is dissatisfied with the levels of criminal activity in the country, particularly the number of homicides,” he said, adding that t. Vincent and the Grenadines and five other six countries in the region flirted with record or near-record homicide levels in 2024.
“At the same time, other countries in the region experienced significant declines in murder rates. The reasons for these variances between and among countries cannot simply be accepted as random, episodic or influenced by external factors,” Gonsalves said.
He said that the government will continue to analyse the respective trends, at home and regionally, “to distil best practices that will be most beneficial to our crime prevention strategies”.
Gonsalves said the reforms of the police force strengthen its leadership, create new crime-fighting units, and improve morale.
“In 2025, there will be a record 1,110 police available to fight crime in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. But the expanded and empowered leadership of those police will be better able to deploy those forces effectively for crime fighting and prevention.”
The fiscal package allocated over one million dollars in specialised equipment and additional vehicles to improve the capacity and operational effectiveness of the police force.
“We will also be working with the Taiwanese for the installation of an additional 160 CCTV cameras across St. Vincent and the Grenadines, at locations selected by the police top brass.”
He said these 160 cameras have arrived here and installation will begin in the coming weeks.
“An expansion of our state-of-the-art CCTV command centre in Questelles is also underway,” Gonsalves said, adding that CCTV is a proven deterrent and crime-fighting tool, and the installation of the additional cameras will greatly increase the surveillance capability of the police.
“Budget 2025 also invests heavily in the rehabilitation, upgrade and expansion of police stations,” he said, adding that “additional resources are allocated with the capital budget of the Ministry of Finance to address Government Buildings — including police stations — that were damaged or made vulnerable by Hurricane Beryl”.
Gonsalves said that this year, the government will open an additional police station in Diamond, close to the Holiday Inn Express and Suites hotel.
“Beyond boots on the ground and tactics and equipment and police stations, Budget 2025 addresses citizen security more holistically. The concept of citizen security embraces more than crime fighting. It also involves protecting human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law,” he said.
CMC/kc/nb/2025