Officials of a newly formed arm of the Royal Bahamas Police Force implemented to provide a sense of safety and security for visitors apprehended a man who admitted to a string of crimes against tourists between February and August of this year.
According to police reports, Ervin Virgill, 34, broke into hotel rooms at the Nassau Royal Palm Hotel on West Bay Street and was seen by some visitors leaving the rooms with their belongings.
Police confiscated a significant number of computers, cell phones, CDs, bags and other electronic supplies from Virgill’s residence.
Virgill was arrested on October 26 for breaking into a car in the St. Alban’s Drive. He pleaded guilty in court earlier this week and was sentenced to five years in prison.
“As a result of many complaints made by visitors, the newly formed police tourism section met with management (of the hotel) and performed a security audit. We assisted with enhancing environmental designs for the safety and security of visitors,” said Assistant Superintendent of Police Christopher Rahming. “Since these measures were put in place by the end of August 2005 there were no further entry into hotel rooms.”
The Ministry of Tourism applauded the efforts of the new police tourism unit to preserve the safety of visitors.
Senior Director for Public Development in the Ministry of Tourism, Angela Cleare congratulated ASP Rahming and his team on a job well done. She also stressed that it is important that crimes against tourists be brought under control if “we are to preserve the Bahamas’ number one industry.”
Ms. Cleare said that visitor crime prevention is the Ministry’s number one concern.
“I just can’t tell you how pleased that we at the Ministry of Tourism are with this new initiative. Because we really see a reduction not just in crime but also in harassment of visitors,” Ms. Cleare said. “Safety and security is a number one concern to visitors. We have done surveys and they tell us when choosing a destination safety and security is the main reason why they would visit a destination.”
Ms. Cleare said that the way crime is responded to is what creates visitor satisfaction. She used the recent missing persons case in Aruba as an example of a slow response to the dealing with visitor crime.
“They did not deal with it the way they should have and now their tourism industry is suffering,” Ms. Cleare said. “With this kind of initiative you can be assured that sort of thing will never happen in the Bahamas.”
The new police tourism unit came together as a joint effort between the Commissioner of Police and the Director General of tourism back in July.
According to ASP Rahming, police are now in the process of contacting the hotel that Virgill robbed. He said that with the help of the hotel and officials of the American Embassy the stolen property would be returned to its rightful owners.
“We are in the process of contacting all of the people so that they can collect all of their missing property.” ASP Rahming said.
By: Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
