Teasing some of the Free National Movement's (FNM) policy initiatives to address crime, FNM Mount Moriah candidate and former Deputy Commissioner of Police Marvin Dames yesterday called on the government to install metal detectors in every junior and senior high school and have all students screened in the wake of a stabbing at Government High School (GHS).
During a press conference at FNM headquarters on Mackey Street, Dames also called on the government to immediately engage private security companies, contracted through an open bidding process, to supplement police presence at and around all public schools.
"The optics may not be pretty, and the process may cause some discomfort, but I suppose lawmakers must ask themselves if their discomfort, if their shame at the way things look because of their inability to do the job the Bahamian people entrusted them to do, is worth the life of even a single child," Dames said.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Bahamians, it is time for a paradigm shift in how we address this culture of violence in our schools and [on] our streets.
"No longer can we operate in silos as if the problem is not bigger than personal egos."
A brawl at GHS last Thursday left one student in serious condition in hospital and two others injured.
The incident reignited national debate about violence in schools.
According to Dames, the incident is indicative of a serious gang culture and violent indiscipline in the public school system.
He indicated that while the government touts that crime is down, schools are less safe since the PLP took office.
Crime overall was down 26 percent in 2016, compared to the previous year, according to police statistics, which also showed that the vast majority of categories of crime decreased by double digits.
Dames said the PLP has played to the optics of those figures "while gunmen run rampant through the capital and law abiding citizens pray to see another day".
"The time of the PLP and its political optics is over," he said.
"The police do a yeoman's job, but clearly not enough has been done from a holistic standpoint.
"This isn't an easy situation, but it's not rocket science.
"The formula is simple: neglected youth, broken families and neighborhoods steeped in gang culture fighting drug and turf wars equal higher crime, less safe neighborhoods and more young black bodies riddled with bullets."
Nearly a month after Adonai Wilson, 16, a Doris Johnson Senior High School student, was stabbed to death outside the Prince Charles Drive campus in December 2015, students were subjected to security screenings, including having their bags checked and scanned with a handheld metal detector.
They also had to walk through a metal detector.
It is unclear whether that security system has been maintained.

Prepared
FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis is eyeing Dames as his minister of national security in an FNM administration.
Dames said a cultural shift is needed in how governments address crime, and the FNM has that plan prepared.
"I want the public to be assured that... we are ready to go," he said.
"If the prime minister were to call the election today, we would be ready to roll out that crime plan today."
As part of that plan, Dames said an FNM administration would "deal with intelligence on the highest level", stressing that intelligence is not being maximized to stem the growth of gangs and inflow of guns and drugs into the country.
"We are being overrun, and so we are going to introduce a national intelligence component that you have never seen before," he said.
"We have one now, but there is no legislation governing what we ought to be doing.
"And, do we know what they are doing?
"What exactly is their mandate? We are going to articulate a mandate of a real national intelligence agency that would effectively make inroads into the trafficking of illegal firearms, alleviate smuggling, drugs and every other form of criminality that continues to erode this country."
More than four years since the National Intelligence Agency was established, there is no legislation to support it, despite repeated promises from the government to bring legislation to Parliament.
In its 2012 Charter for Governance, the PLP committed to the formation of the NIA to address "all categories of major breaches/crime in our jurisdiction".
But it remains unclear what specific role the NIA has played in the fight against crime.
Dames also said the FNM, if successful in becoming the government, would develop a zero tolerance attitude to crime and not cherry pick what matters it deals with.
He pledged that an FNM administration would give law enforcement officers more support and freedom to carry out the law, adding that "tremendous time and resources" would be spent on training law enforcement officers to ensure they are capable and confident in executing their duties.
Additionally, Dames said the FNM would work closely with community departments to change the culture of violence, insisting there is a lot of talk about community policing, but questioned whether "we are executing any form of community policing" in the communities.
Minnis said more of the FNM's crime plan will be revealed during the FNM Torchbearers' convention on February 2-3.

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