The focus is to enhance and improve community safety and security by reducing the threat of illegal firearms and ammunition as well as reducing the likelihood of illegal firearms getting into the hands of criminals.
That was the objective outlined by Enville Williams, Acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) as he announced a 90-day gun amnesty scheduled to begin on March 1 and run until May 31, 2024.
“We are asking persons in possession of illicit firearms and ammunition to turn them in to the police without being prosecuted for them,” the CoP said at a press briefing on January 3.
A series of consultations are expected to begin soon throughout the country, he said, to bring members of the public up to speed on the details of the amnesty.
If anything else, the hierarchy of the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF) seem to be optimistic as it relates to the success of the pending gun amnesty.
According to the CoP, during 2023, six illegal firearms and 33 rounds of ammunition were turned over to the police.
He appealed to residents who might be in possession of illegal firarms to contact your local police station, and he gave the assurance that that they will not be prosecuted.
Williams told members of the media that the police were able to seize 29 illegal firearms and 290 rounds of ammunition in 2023.
And according to him, operation Operation TIFOS – Take Illicit Firearms Off the Streets, was expected to continue in 2024 as law enforcement authorities continue to deal with gun violence in the country and an increasing murder count.
Of the 52 murders committed in 2023, 43 were gun related, this according to Trevor Bailey, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in charge of crime.