Police in the US Virgin Islands (USVI) are lamenting the lack of global positioning system (GPS), integration, which comes mounted on every police vehicle but is not connected to a central location where the VIPD could track police movement. Photo: VIC

Officers Lesha Lammy (right) and Kai Javois were shot dead by someone two weeks ago at a beach in Hams Bluff, Frederiksted, US Virgin Islands (USVI). Photo: VIC

Prior to their slaying, Ms Lammy’s estranged lover, a fellow officer named Francis Williams, was acting erratic and even dangerous towards the deceased victims, according to court documents.

They were found dead and their private parts mutilated, according to three police officers with knowledge of the matter, who insisted on anonymity.

Police are working feverishly attempting to put away the officers’ killer, but they have yet to announce a murder suspect. And their efforts to quickly identify and bring to justice a suspect have been stymied by the lack of simple solutions that would aid the force in collecting more evidence.

A glaring example is the lack of integration of widespread technology that would, in multiple ways, be of great benefit to the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD) and taxpayers alike.

Lack of GPS integration

One example is the lack of global position system (GPS), integration, which comes mounted on every police vehicle but is not connected to a central location where the VIPD could track police movement. This has caused many problems, including the absence of properly monitoring police officers to determine whether they’re on duty or not. And in this case, being able to easily learn whether a police vehicle was used during the homicide deaths of the two police officers.

“I have been begging them to get the GPS installed so that we could know where the officers are on a regular basis,” Senator Kurt Vialet told The Consortium on Saturday, August 20, 2016. “I mean in America, someone sits in a room and they’re looking at the whole map and they could tell where every police car is, so if something is happening, they could say, ‘Vehicle 1, you’re right there in that vicinity, go here now.’ It would immediately cut the overtime by more than 50 percent, because a lot of the overtime is people just punching in and going home to cool out.”

“But it’s a ‘good ole boy’ system,” Mr Vialet said.

Multiple calls placed to VIPD Commissioner Delroy Richards were not returned at time of writing.

Mr Vialet, a former educator, said connecting GPS to cars and also putting high resolution cameras across the islands would put a dent in crime. “I have asked Public Safety to put high resolution cameras going all into the rain forest, in all these affected areas,” but he said no action has been taken in that regard.

The deaths of the officers and that of a firefighter in St Thomas on Thursday, caused an uproar among residents, some who are beginning to fear for their lives, reasoning that if those sworn to protect society could so easily become targets, regularly citizens are in even more danger.

The senator said he would continue advocating for the installation of cameras around the territory. He mentioned that some of the money — $10 million — secured for first responder vehicles and other purposes, could be used to purchase the cameras.