Going Deep Undercover?

With all the discussion and praying for the abatement and lessening of the incidence of crime that is taking place in the country presently, it appears that one of the organizations that was formed with the singular mandate of assisting the police and the community to combat the incidence of crime seems to be … either like the ostrich, burying its head in the sand; or like the first two of the three proverbial monkeys neither seeing or hearing any evil.
While just about everyone in the state is waxing vocal - the talk shows abound with complaints, suggestions, criticism and proferred solutions from just about everyone with a voice, while the entire nation falls to its knees in prayer and entreats Almighty God to lend a hand, one has to wonder why there seems to be nothing concrete coming from the one para-governmental, taxpayer-funded, staffed with highly salaried officials whose much-touted promise it is, to aid the police in the efficient functioning of their duties.
C. A. P. S.
The Community Action Programme for Safety.
Last year, members of the House of Assembly met and the National Crime Commission (N. C. C.) was repealed and replaced with C.A.P.S.
“In this program what will be addressed is the safety and crime situation that exists in St. Lucia,” said the Home Affairs Minister of the day. “It will address it in a holistic manner. It is envisaged that CAPS will … among other things, establish special committees in communities that are deemed to be hotspots for crime.”
The country almost breathed a sigh of relief at the thought that the N. C. C. was no more, an organization that, at its zenith, declared October as a month to protest against crime and asked the population to purchase tiny bows of blue ribbon and wear them all month to show the criminals that we were serious about taking them to task over their criminal activities.

By replacing the NCC with CAPS we thought that something at least a little more practical and realistic would result … but we apparently never realized that changing the name, but not the brains at the head of the organization was not even worth the cost of paper and ink it took to record the change.
What exactly is CAPS’ function? Is it a think tank that is supposed to supply suggestions and information to the police, thereby helping them in their operations? Is it a planning organization? At this time that we are clutching at every and any straw to keep us from drowning in the morass of crime that we find ourselves, are they helping out? Do the members of CAPS sit at Commissioner Broughton’s right hand in this, possibly his hour of greatest need since he set foot on our shores, and whisper valuable advice into his ear?
How are they “addressing the safety and crime situation that exists in St. Lucia ‘in a holistic manner’?”
Perhaps they have been disbanded and we were not told; or then again, perhaps they are doing such marvellous undercover work in those selected communities that no one can be made aware of it, for fear of “blowing their cover”?
Who knows? The only tangible fact we can put our finger on is that, in this desperate time when we seem to be losing all hope of coming up with solutions to what assail us, the organization seems remarkably silent.
Unless of course, they come out in full force once again, hitting the streets with their arsenal of blue ribbons to scare the criminals into hiding.
After all, the name may have changed, but the individuals remain the same.