-
Share This:
-
Rate this article:
Weather
Max: 85°F | Min: 76°F
| Bell says Christie administration in line with ‘supercop’ recommendations |
Krystel Rolle
Guardian Staff Reporter krystel@nasguard.com
Published: Jun 27, 2012
Though the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) branded the former government’s move to bring former New York City Police Chief William Bratton to the country to discuss the crime fighting strategies a “superficial” political effort, State Minister for National Security Keith Bell said the ‘supercop’s’ recommendations mirror the Christie administration’s views. “[He confirmed that] everything we're doing is right,” Bell told The Nassau Guardian yesterday. “Bratton made two points when he was here: you need strong political leadership and you need police resources. “We have the police resources. What they (the Ingraham administration) lacked was political leadership. We have strong political leadership. In other words we have what it takes to break the back of crime.” Bell added that Bahamians will soon begin to see that crime will go down. Bratton is also a former Boston police commissioner, New York City police commissioner and chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. He has been credited with helping to dramatically reduce crime levels in those major jurisdictions. The former government and top executives of the police force met with Bratton in March. Bratton is chairman of Kroll, a New York based risk consultancy firm. Back in March Bratton told reporters, “To deal with the issue of crime and public safety requires first and foremost political leadership that is committed to dealing with it, and secondly, police leadership and organization that is capable of being creative in dealing with it.” Speaking of his own experience he added, “In New York I had a very strong mayor, a visionary mayor — Mayor [Rudolph] Giuliani — who believed that something could be done with the situation with crime in that city, that for 30 years had been on the increase. “We had a lot of cops, 38,000, and we had a lot of help. In Los Angeles, I had a much smaller police force, but I also had strong political leadership with the two mayors I worked with there.” The country has set four murder records in the past five years and is on target to set yet another record this year. But Bell said the government will work to reverse that trend. |
