No firearms for business owners!
His comment comes on the heels of a recent armed robbery at a Road Town jewellery store, and business owners lamenting on the possibility of being able to protect themselves.
But according to DCP Morris, such a move would not solve anything. “What it does is create more risk in this area, prevention is better.”Instead, ‘high value’ businesses should have security cameras and security doors where people have to be buzzed in, he added.
“At the end of the day having a gun behind the counter does not help at all. There is always that risk in shooting someone who is innocent or being shot because the owner is standing at one end of the shop and would want to rush over to get his gun while the robbers are in there. .. I rather have property stolen than someone lose their life,” DCP Morris noted.
Furthermore, he is making an appeal to business owners to have “cameras that work, which will help officers in reviewing footage”.
“I do find a number of businesses in the Territory all say they have cameras but they are not working,” he divulged.
Should security personnel be armed?There are several private security firms in the Territory, who are employed by private entities to protect businesses and property, however, Morris disclosed the same “no arming policy” applies.
He made it clear that, “If that was the case, might as well you arm all police officers and members of the public. Then we will have an armed Territory. Is the level of criminality in the Territory warrants that? At the end of the day when you start to look the statistics around robberies, it is not a level that we need armed security guards. We have armed police officers and we are looking to increase our firearm capabilities within the force.”
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