PORT MARIA, St Mary – National Security Minister Peter Phillips says the Praedial Larceny Bill is close to being passed, contrary to media reports.

He was responding to complaints from a group of St Mary residents who last Friday demanded to know when the Bill would be passed.

Phillips insisted that news reports had been giving an erroneous impression of the Act, which is now before parliament, saying the Bill had passed the second reading, and would shortly go to the committee stage.

“It is to go into committee (to be discussed clause by clause); but it is going to be passed,” the minister told the residents who met with him at the Port Maria Civic Centre after he had completed a tour of the parish.

One man, who said he had been in farming for 35 years, begged the minister to have the law changed to enable farmers who had been victimised to get compensation from the thieves upon conviction.

“If they charge him $50,000 for my crop I should get that, and then they should charge him another $50,000 for revenue (that would go to the government),” the elderly man argued.

The minister said he believed farmers needed protection from thieves, as agriculture remained a major source of income for many people.

Regarding the fines, Dr Phillips said he wished those who have the duty to impose penalties in the courts would do so.

“I hope the Minister of Justice will convey to the judicial the seriousness of the offence (praedial larceny),” he said.

In addition to the impact of praedial larceny on the farming community and the delay in getting the Act passed into law, the residents also wanted Phillips to address the problem of noise pollution. They were particularly concerned about street dances and parties that continue well into the early hours of the morning.

Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Area Two Gilbert Kameka told the residents that the police accepted some of the blame for not enforcing the law under the Law Abatement Act as far as noise pollution was concerned.

“It is something we, at the command level, have been seeking to enforce. Sometimes the strength of the police party is not enough to turn off the sound systems,” he explained.

But he encouraged citizens who were experiencing the problem, and who could not get a response from the police after their complaints, to take the matter to a higher authority.

“One thing I don’t want you to accept is a poor level of service from the force,” ACP Kameka said, adding that all cops were trained in customer service.

“We definitely will make an additional effort and hope you will see a difference.”

But Superintendent Neville Warmington, who is in charge of the St Mary division, said the matter has been causing tension between the police and residents who stage these events, “who feel the police are undermining them from making a living”.

In this regard, Warmington urged citizens’ associations to help the police by using “gentle persuasion” to get the noise levels of sound systems down to acceptable levels.

During the meeting, residents also raised the issue of capital punishment.

One resident who asked Phillips what he was doing about capital punishment, was applauded.

But the minister replied that it was up to the courts, adding that there were a number of cases now before the Privy Council.

He also explained that he did not want the passion of the citizens in regard to capital punishment to hide the fact that the most effective deterrent to crime was not the severity of the punishment, but the knowledge that the authorities would act swiftly to have the criminals caught and tried.