Police officials on St. John are counting the ways their recent town meeting in Cruz Bay met their expectations. More than 50 residents and business owners joined the March 21 meeting to express concerns, ask questions and show their support for a number of anti-crime initiatives.
Prominent among them was Project Safe Neighborhood, a federally supported nationwide program designed to identify crime trends in cities and towns and find ways to diminish them.
One of the Thursday meeting organizers said introducing the concept of community partnerships was one of the goals. “Everyone is a stakeholder,” said V.I. Police Department Capt. Sharon Colbourne.
Counting 13 volunteers willing to sign up as community partners from St. John, police said the island will finally have a presence in the local safe neighborhood program.
And while many safe neighborhood areas have identifiable violent crime characteristics, Colbourne said the prevalent crimes on St. John are accidents or quarreling.
Now and then, she added, the pattern may vary. At the end of 2023 a spate of break-ins appeared. With the community’s help, three suspects were identified and apprehended.
After that, the captain said, the rash of burglaries ceased. “Thanks to the community, we were able to capture three individuals,” the captain said.
To try and keep St. John’s community spirit thriving for the future, meeting organizers also welcomed a number of youth participants. They were welcomed by Youth Advisory Board Chair Jacqueline Freeman.
All who attended on Thursday were also introduced to a team of community service officers. Their job, Colbourne said, is to address situations that might otherwise prompt a call for police assistance. There was also a discussion of a community-supported offender re-entry program in support of the notion that those who pay their debt to society deserve a second chance.
And while officials had their time to talk, they also took the time to listen and follow up on incidents that deeply concerned the island’s business community in recent years. Colbourne said the VIPD Investigations Bureau is still at work on two jewelry store robberies in the Cruz Bay area, one in which a merchant was shot and injured.
The captain encourages anyone who thinks they may have information related to those incidents to contact the Virgin Islands Police Department Investigations Bureau at 340-774-2211 or Crime Stoppers USVI at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
“I have to thank the community because the community gets involved,” Colbourne said.
