CASTRIES -Opposition Leader Allen Chastanet says the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) is prepared to work across party lines to deal with the rising crime situation in St. Lucia.
In a radio and television broadcast on Thursday night, Chastanet said that crime should never be a political issue since it “affects all of us, regardless of our political affiliation, our economic status, or where we live”.
In his broadcast, Chastanet, a former prime minister, said that St Lucia is experiencing “the worst crime crisis in our nation’s history” and that last year, the island recorded 77 murders, “the deadliest year we had ever seen.”
He said under the current St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) government of Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre, firearm-related murders have surged from five out of every 10 murders to just under eight out of 10 murders.
“This tells us that our streets have been flooded with illegal weapons while our police force has been starved of resources. The police budget was actually cut while crime soared to record levels. In 2024, our beloved St Lucia had the sixth-highest homicide rate in the Caribbean at 42.8 per 100,000 people.”
Chastanet said that with its homicide rate only about seven per cent higher than St Lucia’s, Trinidad and Tobago has declared a state of emergency, “yet our leaders remain silent on our own crisis”.
He said that beyond the numbers, crime places an enormous burden on the country’s mental health and an already strained healthcare system, with gunshot victims and assault cases overwhelming emergency rooms and diverting critical medical resources from other patients who need care.
He said that the government has not only been silent but also “disorganised and soft on crime that they forgot to even appoint a Minister of National Security for months after taking office”.
He told the radio and television audience that the authoritties disbanded the K9 unit that was crucial for drug detection and crime prevention and that “Tyson, the single remaining K9 was mysteriously poisoned.
“They failed to maintain our police scanners, leaving our officers operating blind on the streets. Where we had built a network of over 1200 CCTV cameras across the island, they have allowed this critical infrastructure to fall into disrepair,” Chastanet said, adding that the crime situation “strikes at the very heart of our justice system.
“We have witnessed not just a surge in crime but the collapse of the justice system with the mysterious disappearance of evidence in critical criminal cases. When evidence vanishes from police custody, when the very foundation of our justice system crumbles, we are not just failing the victims, we are betraying every law-abiding citizen who depends on that system for protection.”
He said should the UWP win the general election due next year, it will establish a dedicated CSI unit that will handle all evidence collection and preservation, ensuring the chain of custody is never compromised.
Chastanet said that even more disturbing are the multiple sexual assault allegations against a senior police officer, adding that “when those sworn to protect become those we fear, when those who should uphold justice become those who pervert it, our society is in grave danger.”
Chastanet said that despite public knowledge of the rising crime situation here, there is “ silence from the highest levels of government.
“The silence when evidence disappears. The silence when serious allegations surface against those in positions of authority. The silence when asked about their plan to fight crime – because they never had one.
“This silence is complicity. It is an abdication of the sacred responsibility that comes with leadership. This administration has been soft on crime, with no accountability and only excuses.”
Chastanet said that two years ago, he wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Pierre in which “I set aside partisan politics and offered specific, concrete solutions to address our growing crime crisis.
“Most importantly, I offered the full support of the United Workers Party to work together, across party lines, to protect our people. Because crime should never be political. Crime affects all of us, regardless of our political affiliation, our economic status, or where we live.
That letter was ripped to shreds. Those recommendations were ignored. And in the two years since, our situation has only gotten worse.” (CMC)
