Early Sunday morning, in Williams Delight, we lost one of our own. Officer Eustace Charles, a veteran of the Virgin Islands Police Department who wore the uniform with honor, down in the community he served. My heart is with his family, his loved ones, and every VIPD officer who woke up to news that no family should ever receive.
I ask every Virgin Islander to hold his family in prayer, and I am pleading that anyone with information to come forward. Someone in our community knows who took the life of Officer Charles and the other 26 victims murdered this year. However, they will only come forward when coming forward is safe. Officer Charles answered the call for us every day of his career,now we must provide answers for him. We must lean on our spiritual compass to navigate this crisis, but prayers alone will not stop the next bullet. You deserve the truth about why we have the highest crime rate in the United States and what it will take to reduce it.
Here is the truth: 27 murders have been recorded in the Virgin Islands, just this year, yet only one arrest has been made. Countless families and residents are grieving the loss of these victims.With only one arrest, the promise of law and order is broken for the 26 victims and families whose murders remain unsolved. In fact, every unsolved homicide sends the same message to those who committed them — our community is lawless. In the absence of justice, violence persists. It escalates and spreads across every community, including our police force.
For almost 30 years, I served our community as a local and federal prosecutor and as United States Attorney for the Virgin Islands. I have sat across the table from grieving families and those accused of committing senseless violence, and one thing is certain, everyone loses when crimes are committed. Together, we must reduce crime in our community. My experience has taught methat solving crimes require resources: a fully staffed police department, manageable caseloads, access to forensic and ballistic analysis, and protection for witnesses. The VIPD is asked to solvecrimes without adequate resources. Our officers are not failing us. We are failing them.
We must first address the $40,000 starting salary for police officers. VIPD will never recruit norretain an adequate police force until the salary matches the sacrifice. Federal public safety dollars must flow into recruitment, retention, and pay, not just equipment.
Next, we must pursue a fully staffed police department. Currently, one or two police units may be assigned to patrol Frederiksted while Christiansted may have one unit assigned. That is not a police presence, that is a prayer. Higher salaries would mean more officers on our streets, more substations in high crime areas, and sustained funding to keep them operating. Visible policing prevents crime before it happens, and it builds the community’s trust.
Another area we must address is the trafficking of illegal firearms into our territory. Most illegal firearms arrive by sea or by air. Yet for federal enforcement resources, the Virgin Islands is coupled with Puerto Rico, a status that is crippling to our territory. The Virgin Islands cannot compete with Puerto Rico’s population of 3.2 million people, nor should Puerto Rico be in a position to determine what resources are assigned to the Virgin Islands. The resources devoted to policing our shores are inadequate and the drug and gun traffickers know it. In Congress, I will fight for dedicated funding for the Virgin Islands, increased Coast Guard cutter presence, and surveillance and interdiction assets stationed in the territory that are answerable to our needs.
Crime prevention must also include outreach programs that reach our young people before the streets do. I know the programs that fund every piece of this plan, the COPS Office, Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program, Project Safe Neighborhoods, Homeland Security’s maritime accounts. I know the officials who run the Department of Justice because I have walked those halls on behalf of the Virgin Island and delivered results.
Twenty-seven murders and one arrest is not a problem we can describe our way out of. It demands someone who has actually done this work — someone who has a proactive approach to crime prevention and who knows the difference between announcing an initiative and closing a case. Officer Eustace Charles gave his life in service to the Virgin Islands. The measure of our gratitude cannot be the eloquence of our tributes. It will be whether his killers face justice and whether our community feels safer because we finally give VIPD the resources needed for effective policing. As Delegate, I intend to deliver these resources for the people of the Virgin Islands.
