Grenada PM Says Crime Prevention Critical to Tourism

Grenada is placing priority on crime prevention, border detection and border control as part of its plan for boosting the tourism product.

Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, who is also National Security Minister, highlighted the issue in discussions with the outgoing United States Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Mary Ourisman, during her farewell visit to Grenada this week.

Foreign and Tourism Minister Peter David, who also attend the meeting, echoed the Prime Minister’s sentiments, stressing that the promotion of the island as a safe and crime free destination is critical to the success of the tourism sector.

“We are blessed with a low crime rate, so border detection and border control are very important to us,” he said.

Ambassador Ourisman suggested that the $6 million information gathering facility provided to regional governments as part of the security arrangements for Cricket World Cup in 2007 would be useful in this area.

“The legislation should be reviewed because of its sunset nature because this can be used to enhance border control. It was a good investment in the Caribbean,” she said. The system provided regional law enforcement with the ability to have prior knowledge of persons coming into the region for the games.

During the meeting, the officials also discussed the E-trace initiative which gives Caribbean police forces the ability to trace the purchase of weapon used in criminal activity and find networks that illegally ship weapons into the Caribbean. Currently, only the Bahamas and Jamaica have access to E-trace although access is also available to other countries.

They noted that while significant training opportunities are available, there is a need for a review of the relevance of the training and the use of the information when persons returned to their home countries.