Police ready to combat looters this hurricane season
The Commissioner gave the assurance in invited comments to Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) yesterday, August 27, 2019.
Quick deployment a priority
“Following the 2017 hurricanes, we completely reviewed our emergency response procedures to ensure we are able to safely house additional officers across the territory in advance of a storm and quickly deploy once it has passed,” Mr Matthews said.
He said even as the force is prepared for deployment, the focus this time and most critical will come towards saving human life and rescuing those trapped as a result of storms. "Our deployment focus would be about ‘rescue’ and saving life in the first instance,” he said.
CoP Matthews continued, “We have, however, also increased a number of operational capabilities to combat the threat of crimes and looting by the selfish few following any catastrophic event to the territory.”
In the aftermath of hurricanes Maria and Irma, some persons saw this as an opportunity to loot whatever they could from stores and other places of business.
Looters invade
Businesses that were not damaged by the hurricane were deliberately broken into by unscrupulous individuals looting everything they could get their hands on.
Media reports cited stories of some businesses left virtually untouched by Hurricane Irma on September 6, 2017, only for looters to gain entry the following days by breaking down doors, smashing windows and even going through walls before making off with goods.
Speaking on the plans to address crime and other deployments for the 2019 hurricane season, CoP Matthews, however, said, “We are of course hopeful such deployment is not required in respect of Dorian.”
Among the many other Tortola businesses that suffered at the hands of looters in 2017 were RiteWay in Prospect Reef and Nanny Cay, Arawak's also in Nanny Cay, International Motors, Mi Amor, Bolo's Variety Store, Infinite Solutions, Vanterpool Pharmacy and Said's Department Store.
Curfew in effect
Meanwhile, a curfew is in effect for the Virgin Islands from 2:00pm until 6:00am, Thursday August 29, 2019.
Only essential workers are permitted to be on the roads during that time.
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14 Responses to “Police ready to combat looters this hurricane season”
@wize up, you sound so fricking foolish, it’s all about precaution and nothing to do with police state. Am sure if a legitimate business owner is going to check on his business place even if a curfew is in place, the police will exercise their discretion and allow it but you always come on here with your disagreeable a** chatting a bunch of cow dung, man just go and wise up and stop make yourself a total ass.