TALK BACK: Readers want CCTV, patrols in City too
A MOVE BY the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Flow Revitalisation of Bridgetown to light the streets of The City is long overdue, say residents.
Representatives from the police force and Chamber say the improved lighting should make Bridgetown safer for those who travel there at night and could encourage later opening hours.
Acting Commissioner of Police Oral Williams says “predators” who operate under cover of darkness would now be deterred, but residents, fearful of the rising level of gun violence, also called for CCTV cameras and police on patrol.
Here are their views:
Erasmus Black: Can solar lighting help in the wider communities to control cost?
Elsie Jaime: This is 40 years overdue. Maybe we should move the capital from Bridgetown as it’s fast becoming a forgotten city.
Anderson Boyce: I wonder what about the roads of the island too. I counted ten lights one after the other on the highway out, on one side. We advertise as a tourist destination and have poor lighting on our roads; and some where no houses are, have none. What happens when someone has to make an emergency stop on one of these roads with no lights? Do tourists only want to see an island in the day?
Cockeye: While Barbados has not embraced the 21st century technology and laws with use of the surveillance cameras, [is] that the reason why they don’t apprehend the perpetrators sooner or not at all?
A Maria Benn: Oh great. Now I can get robbed in a spotlight ’cause there are no beat cops actually walking beats at night anymore.
Ryvan Bigman: Them lights can’t stop bullets.
Hajerah Bibi Degia Sarkar: They’re taking initiatives. Baby steps. Figured probably for Christmas bustle they were up. It’s a good start.
Lew Lew: Put up cameras too.
Matie Siew: Okay, now what about some security cameras in the same alleys where the lights are installed?
Brigitte Adams: About time. Catching the bus in Baxters Road late evening is awful.
Janelle Small: How about shining light into the people responsible for the rise in crime? Not the street level people, the real people in charge.
Nealiho Hope: Why so bitter? Something good is happening. It might not happen how we want, but at least something is being done.
Caroline Armstrong: It’s about time. Hopefully always and not only for Christmas.
Ibukunoluwa Ayanfe Ozioma: Good move. If it will aid in the identification of criminals when they are in the act or even deter them, then I am all for it.
Rae Jemmott: How about some security cameras? Young fit cops patrolling? People getting robbed in broad daylight too, so those bright lights ain’t gonna scare them off.
Julia Horrocks: There is a lot of research that says lighting does not reduce crime.
Saran Foster: But you getting robbed in broad daylight too. The lights are there to help the thieves make a better getaway.