Crime Stoppers Dominica (CSD) recently held a community education session in Soufriere hosted by the Soufriere/Scotts Head/Gallion Village Council dubbed “Crime and Me: What Can I do”. The session, which forms part of Crime Stoppers Dominica education awareness drive, was well-timed as the community has potential to soon become a tourism and economic center for the south with the ongoing hotel construction projects. The Crime Stoppers Dominica team shared information on various topics.
Attendees including community members/hoteliers/investors gained a better understanding of the consequences of crime, not only for the victim but the community, and the economy. Relocation, depreciation of real estate and property value, economic costs to local businesses were some of the consequences explored as some of the impacts of crime on the community. On a broader scale, as a result of increasing crime, the economy could face loss of potential investment opportunities, declines in tourism and retail sales, while control mechanisms put in place to counteract crime can be costly on an economy.
Details of the process how the Canadian based call centre handles calls as well as guidelines for callers when making reports (to include information about the suspect, victim, vehicle, if one is involved, and details on type of the offence) formed part of the education session.
The Crime Prevention Triangle which details the three elements (desire/ability/opportunity) that must exist in order that a crime occurs was also explored.
In closing, the CSD team highlighted the consequences of adopting a “silent culture” where individuals do not “speak up” and report about criminal behaviours going on in the community.
When community members remain silent about crime, the criminal is free to commit more crime, damaging more communities and individuals. CSD remined the attendants that the responsibility was on everyone to report crime, and that CSD provides that avenue where the public can report crime without having their identity revealed through Crime Stoppers Dominica by calling toll free 1 800 8477 or online at crimestoppersdominica.org.
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