Remarks by Governor John P. de Jongh, Jr.
At a Press Conference to Announce the Nomination of 
Novelle E. Francis, Jr. as Police Commissioner

May 27, 2009
Government House, St. Thomas

Good afternoon and thank you all for coming. I have called this Press Conference to do two things: first, to review in general terms, where we are as a community in our efforts to combat crime and enhance public safety in the Territory and secondly, to announce some significant changes in our Police Department.

I begin today by asking us all to directly confront the sobering facts that describe the violence of the recent months. So far this year in 2009 on St Thomas alone we have recorded fourteen deaths by shootings. 

Territory wide we have seen 24, this current trend is extremely alarming. What do we know about these events? We know that almost all were the senseless acts of violence by young men from within our own communities. These are our children grown to young adults who both ended the lives of others and whose own lives will be effectively ended when they are caught and convicted. Even more importantly - What does this tell us? 

It tells us that in the few short years that it took for these young men to grow from being young boys into young adults accused of these violent felonies, they did not learn what it takes to live as productive members of our society. They did not learn the positive alternatives to a life of crime; they did not learn how to control their emotions, their anger, or their frustrations.

These same young men are also not likely to ever become productive members of our society. Many are likely to spend the rest of their lives, perhaps as many as forty, fifty or sixty years, in prison. They have failed. 

Their parents, their schools, their churches, their friends, their families, our community as a whole, all failed to have these once innocent young boys grow into men worthy of respect, to grow into men who can function in a civilized society following the rules that we all choose to live by. 

These are not the singular failure of one person or simply failures of past Administrations, they are not simply the failures of this Administration, they are not recent, and they are not failures of government, the police, or the courts alone – They are the failures of all of us in this community. 

We are not alone in this epidemic that we find ourselves confronting. Our public safety officials who recently attended the Association of Caribbean Police Commissioners meetings in Guyana as well as my meetings last week with the leaders of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States in Tortola reported back similar problems from the larger islands down to the smallest in our region they are all facing the same challenges we face here in the Virgin Islands. 

Throughout the Caribbean and the United States we are seeing the same thing: young people making the wrong choices and finding themselves and their futures devastated in the same way as the young men I referenced earlier. 

These are failures that we must all acknowledge, and they are failures we must all work together to make a thing of the past. To do so we must not waiver in our efforts, but we must also stand back and critically review our efforts to date.

When it comes to the current state of public safety in our Territory, we must all accept responsibility for where we are today and we must all acknowledge that we have fallen short. It is a responsibility that we must all accept because we are all in this together. 

That is the challenge that I present to myself and to everyone involved when it comes to public safety in our Islands and that means all of us.

We are all responsible and we are all to blame for turning a blind eye to the practices as well as the sins that have led us to the place we are in today. In my church, as in many others, we acknowledge two kinds of sins: sins of omission and sins of commission and I believe that we have been guilty of both:

• The parent who does not check what is in their child's room is guilty of the sin of omission;
• The child who is allowed to eat from a box of cookies in the supermarket in the company of an adult who does not either pay for the cookies or make the child pay for them, is guilty of both sins;
• The young children that are allowed in some of the popular night spots and served drinks by bartenders that can easily recognize that they are to young to be in such a place, let alone be served a drink – Even more guilty is the parent that knows their child is not at home at such a late hour;
• Blocking the intersection, running the red light, or taking rolls of paper towels home from the office.

We must stop accepting excuses for behaviors we know are wrong from anyone: Young or old, private citizen or public official. And we must accept the reality that we must work harder and smarter if we are to restore a sense of safety and security to the people of our islands.

We must remember that we are teaching by example in everything we do. We must start at the beginning with the little things that we know are wrong, and provide help to those who need it, especially our younger generation and we must be prepared to offer help to those who don’t know how to ask to ask for it.

For many years now we have all seen the increase in dropout rates within our schools as well as the decrease in involvement within our Parent Teacher Associations, or sparse attendance of adults at athletic events or academic programs. 

We should not be so shocked at what we are now facing because we have all seen what has been transpiring and we have let it happen. For those who continue to be involved, I commend your participation and ask for your continued vigilance. 

We will continue in our efforts with The Children and Family Council, and expand the Parent University, We will have more after-school programs and more activities at the basketball courts, baseball fields and tennis courts that we continue to renovate and make available for everyone. 

To those who have not been involved, we need you – your kids need you. I have held meetings with religious leaders in both districts and asked for their more active engagement, and I have also reached out to the business community in both districts to do the same.

We must accept, as a given, the fact that we live in far more complicated times, in a far more interconnected world, than ever before. We cannot in all honesty deny that external influences are a lot more pressing on our children today than they were on their grandparents forty years ago. 

But that does not mean that we must throw up our hands in despair and give up our children to forces and influences we know in our hearts as well as our heads are wrong and harmful. 

These changes, these world changes are real, but they are not cause for defeat, rather they are a loud and clear demand that we do more, that we bear down harder, that we focus more clearly, that we do more for our children, not less. We must be more aware of what our children are doing, pay more attention, and be more involved, not less. This means all of us.

When it comes to our Police - We must also measure objectively what we are doing in law enforcement when these problems leave the house and present themselves as crimes in our communities. We must therefore measure our successes as well as shortcomings. Our police have in the past experienced greater success in the confiscation of illegal weapons from the streets of the Virgin Islands. Already this year, officers have removed 52 unlicensed firearms from our community….52 weapons that had the potential of being used in a violent crime. 

Also, we have seen an overall increase in the number of arrests recorded in both districts for illegal firearm use or illegal gun possession. Sure they can do better, but we cannot blame the police for all the ills they must confront, we must confront ourselves with a fuller reality and we must work collectively to make that better. 

We have reached across to our retired and experienced police officers to assist, we are nurturing a group of committed individuals in our community with the Auxiliary Force and we are enticing our young adults to consider law enforcement through the Police Cadet corps and classes at the University of the Virgin Islands. We have addressed the challenges of testing for new recruits by expanding our options and offering prep courses. We held to our commitment with the existing force by completing negotiations on a new contract, paying the long-ignored bonuses and purchasing of the required vehicles.

Good people have been doing more. 

CrimeStoppers has been an invaluable vehicle for public information, and our Community Integration Teams have fostered increased police-community interaction. 

The police have gotten more information than in recent years, but there are still too many people walking and driving on our streets carrying guns. We all have more to do. And we have to do it before more of our young people end up dead or in jail or, worse, some innocent person is hurt. 

We have made some progress, but nowhere near enough. We are going to be trying to do more of what works and less of what seems to be habit or routine and little more.

When I became Governor, it was clear that there were several significant structural problems in law enforcement that needed immediate attention. One of these was a near total breakdown of communication and lack of trust between the Police and the Department of Justice. 

Another was a tremendous amount of distrust, and lack of cooperation, between local law enforcement and the various Federal agencies that were either operating in or could be asked to assist in the Territory.

Commissioner McCall, himself a veteran of the Federal ATF, worked hard to fix these problems, and worked well with Attorney General Frazier to make the relationship with Justice work better, and he and the Attorney General have made meaningful progress in these areas.

Their efforts deserve recognition and gratitude. Indeed, I will ask them both to continue to work together to do even more in the future. I will be discussing their continued efforts in the near future but it is now time to make more changes and to redirect our efforts in the Police Department.

However, the challenges we currently face also call for a change in the direction in how we have been combating crime in our Territory as well as the ways we are currently providing public safety for our residents.

And so this afternoon, I am announcing that I have appointed Novelle Francis Jr. to the position of Commissioner of Police effective immediately. Mr. Francis has been with the Department for 22 years and served as Assistant Commissioner since 2007. Prior to that, he has held every uniformed position within the Department from Police Cadet to Territorial Police Chief.

As we have prepared for this transition, both Acting Commissioner Francis and Commissioner Mc Call have reviewed with me what they believe have been the areas of progress in the Police Department as well as those areas where we have not yet done what must be done. 

Acting Commissioner Francis will speak to some of the areas of focus where he will be redirecting what we all acknowledge are already short resources of the VIPD. But let me tell you what I have told him. 

• I want to know what has been working on St. Croix and try it on St. Thomas, and I want to know what is working better on St. Thomas and try it on St Croix;
• I want our officers to get the guns off our streets and if those guns come out of the pockets of our residents, I want those people off our streets, too;
• I want the number of experienced police officers into our department to be closer to seventy rather than the seven officers we have just welcomed through the Experienced Officers initiative. 
• I do not want to just hear about random road blocks at random times but instead, I want to start seeing some success reports from those roadblocks;
• I want to start hearing that we are picking up those on pre-trial release for violations of their conditions of release, not leaving them commit another crime; 
• I want our police officers to earn the respect of our residents, by raising the levels of their performance and their civility and acting with the pride that we should rightfully aspire to as Virgin Islanders;
• I want us to be able to gather again by year's end and report on progress, on results. 

Commissioner, yours is a great challenge, but one that can only be met with a change in attitude and an acceptance of responsibility. We cannot allow a small group of individuals to alter our way of life or erode our quality of life. It is time for all of us, with your leadership and the hard work of your Department, its staff and officers, to put fear in the lives of these individuals. And I demand, and this community demands, that you get rid of those who either cannot or will do the job you ask of them. You have my full support, and I am sure the community will give you a full and fair chance to earn its support.

For this is not your task alone but a task for all of us.

It is now my honor to introduce my nominee for Commissioner of Police, Mr. Novelle E. Francis, Jr.

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