Corey Lane ready to take action to prevent crime Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

Newly sworn-in Minister of State with the responsibility for Crime Prevention, Corey Lane is ready to take action to arrest the crime issue in Barbados.

Speaking to the media after he was sworn in by President Dame the Most Honourable Sandra Mason at State House on Wednesday, October 26, Minister Lane expressed that he believed his wealth of experience as an activist, working in the Barbados Prison Services and leading the national Live Up HIV/AIDS campaign, will be beneficial in facilitating behavioural change.

“The programmes that I brought in the HIV/AIDS [campaign] in the early stages, people did not think they were HIV programmes because they did not have a red ribbon, but it really was about behaviour change.”

“I believe that with the experience it puts me in a greater position to be able to move the needle on crime in Barbados,” he told reporters.

Clarifying what his role as Minister of State with the responsibility for Crime Prevention would entail, Lane said he will be coordinating and bringing action “to those things that are not happening”.

“There seems to be a misunderstanding about what the role is about but if you think about it, there are many things happening in the Government. There are many things happening in civil society and the third sector that requires coordination.”

“My role is really to coordinate and bring action to those things that are not happening that speaks directly to crime prevention in short, medium and long term – that is what I am about to do, roll up my sleeves and get down to [it],” Lane explained.

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, who was also in attendance with Attorney General Dale Marshall, added that Lane will be part of the efforts to tackle crime not only at a law enforcement level but also at a societal level by changing behaviour and attitudes.

She noted that several community initiatives came to a standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Government was on target to resuming these activities.

“When we were growing up there were a lot of youth groups, sports clubs, culture clubs, community groups. We need kind of activity across Barbados again.

“We also want to able to make sure that we reach out to communities and communities embrace this fight. This is not a fight of any one entity or any one department. This is not the fight of the government or the police alone, this is the fight of all of Barbados.”This is simply changing behaviour and expectations against and I truly believe that between these two gentleman [the Attorney General Dale Marshall and Minister Lane] that they can unlock the potential of this country to win this battle both from a community and social perspective and also from a law enforcement perspective,” the Prime Minister remarked.

She stated that the pandemic adversely impacted Government’s efforts to address crime, noting that the cessation of criminal cases and jury trails has “hurt us badly”.

“Regretably, 80 per cent of the murder cases in Barbados that are still to be heard were for murder cases we inherited in May 2018,” Mottley indicated.

While disclosing that the Attorney General will be announcement amendments to the Firearms Legislation in the House of Assembly on Friday, the Prime Minister emphasised that her Government was tackling the issue from “multiple fronts”.

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