When 22-year-old Dominica immigrant Richie Fontaine was sentenced to 40 years in prison Wednesday for a deadly shooting at a St. Thomas night club, and a member of his posse was extradited to the territory from Tortola to face trial for a local murder and a litany of other charges last week, the transnational aspect of our island crime problem was made clear.
And with the territory poised to break its own record in annual murders, it could be said that St. Thomas is the perfect spot to hold next week’s 25th annual meeting of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police.
From May 24–27, at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort and Spa, the V.I. Police Department will host law enforcement officials, criminal science experts, academics and tourism officials to discuss local and regional issues falling under this year’s theme of “Violent Crime in the Caribbean – Defining & Delivering a Regional Response.”
Police Commissioners or their representatives from Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica, Montserrat, Cayman Islands, Guyana, Curacao, St. Lucia, Bahamas, Belize, BVI, Turks and Caicos, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, and St. Kitts are confirmed to attend the conference, according to the VIPD.
The conference will feature plenary sessions that are open to the public, which will explore topics such as crime and social development, police training deficits in the Caribbean, police corruption and the impact of crime on tourism.
Presenters for the public sessions include Jevene Bent, deputy commissioner of the Jamaican Police Force; Marilyn J. Jones, associate professor, Division of Criminal Justice at California State University; Robert Paulson, former FEMA director; Mark Ridley, special assistant to the president of NOBLE; and Ausbert Regis, commissioner of the Royal St. Lucia Police Force.
Anyone wishing to participate in the plenary sessions must register with the VIPD Administrative Office located on the upper level of the hotel on Monday, May 24. The administrative office will open at 7 a.m. and remain open throughout the conference. Advance registration may also be done by emailing accp2010stt.vipd@gmail .com.
