Police officers of a special task force – the Quiet Storm Unit – have seized an assortment of weapons and illegal drugs from a number of local nightclubs over the last few weeks as part of a covert operation aimed at reducing crime.
The police unit also made more than 190 arrests and confiscated liquor and money from unlicensed establishments, authorities reported yesterday as they displayed the items at the East Street headquarters of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
The undercover operation, which also included street sweeps, was one of several that the police force is pursuing simultaneously to tackle the menace of crime.
“What we do sporadically is raids of the nightspots,” explained Inspector Oscar Sands officer in charge of the unit. “After the numbers of murders in the nightclubs, we decided to go in there and see what’s going on.”
The police unit was conducting the raids since mid-October and will continue to do so, officials disclosed.
Officers confiscated 19 cutlasses, 31 knives several of which had serrated edges, nine screwdrivers, four box cutters, two scissors and two fake guns. Eighteen boxes of liquor and over $100 were also taken from businesses that were not licensed to sell alcohol.
According to Inspector Whitney Johnson, second in command of the Quiet Storm Unit in many instances the task force is acting on information that is gleaned from the public.
He said that officers have discovered that many of the persons who carry contraband at nightclubs discard them before the uniformed members of his team reach the inside of the establishments.
“Upon arriving at these various nightspots, a lot of these persons see the police from outside so what they do is drop these various things on the ground and hide them behind various speakers, so when we reach on the inside and start conducting our searches we find them on the ground, in the bathroom and various places in the clubs,” he said.
The police force has acknowledged that crime tends to increase around the Christmas season, but have vowed to confront it with increased vigilance.
Police Liaison Officer Inspector Walter Evans also pointed out that authorities want to ensure that as the Junkanoo season approaches, patrons do not attend the parades armed with weapons, as has happened in the past.
“This is an effort to reduce the amount of crime and we know that if these weapons are left on the streets and left in the hands of individuals, the amount of injuries will increase,” he said.
Although he declined to release specific details about the operations that the police force has activated to deal with crime, Inspector Evans said officials are relying on various strategies.
“At this stage we believe that crime is pretty much under control,” he said. “I think crime is not the issue in our community, it’s the fear of crime, now that is where we find the challenges within our community-Over the last couple of weeks we have not had a reported homicide whereby the police has had to respond.”
There have been 51 reported homicides so far this year with authorities still concerned about the extent to which deficiencies in conflict resolution are contributing to the problem.
As such, Inspector Evans referred to several of the craftier weapons that have been confiscated at local nightspots like a slingshot with ball bullets which could cause serious injuries and what he referred to as Ramboo-type knives which are typically used when tempers flare.
According to the Inspector one of the challenges is that members of the public are able to purchase items at various sports stores around town, but he warned that persons who are caught carrying the items without a legitimate reason will likely face prosecution.
The Police Force conducted the operation along with members of the Immigration Department.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
