The recent bomb threats, now confirmed as hoaxes, which occurred at George F.L. Charles Airport and CIBCFirst Caribbean International Bank are nothing new, and are merely two more notches on a decades-long belt. However, what seemingly is becoming a trend is the relative success of law enforcement in tracking down the perpetrators of these hoaxes.
Although investigations into the March 29 bomb hoax at CIBC are still ongoing, a suspect was arrested and charged in each of two previous incidents: last year, a French international and, earlier this year, a Saint Lucian journalist, both for bomb threats at George F.L. Charles airport.
ACP for Crime Intelligence Management Wayne Charlery, during an interview last week with the STAR, revealed that the police already have the technology for tracking down bomb threat perpetrators.
“Yes, the technology is there,” he said. “However, what we need to do now is to take a look at our laws. The legislation is not as strong as it should be in that regard.”
Charlery explained that despite the available technology, investigating a bomb threat is no simple matter, given how tech-savvy the average Saint Lucians are nowadays. But he also made a point of saying that the use of every communications device can be traced through the telecommunications companies on island. Those companies were crucial to bringing the last airport bomb hoax investigation to a close and will be crucial to solving the most recent one.
“What we would like to say is, although we have all of these new devices and so on, there’s one origin for it—the telecommunication companies, whether it’s Digicel or Flow. So from there, now we get our work done and I must say that, within the law, we’re getting all the cooperation possible. There are scenarios within the law that provide for assistance from the telecommunications companies.”
The ACP hopes that public knowledge of that fact will go a long way in deterring would-be bomb hoaxers, and compared such a crime to an act of terror.
Referring to the March 29 bank incident, Charlery said. “If you look at the last bomb hoax, it would have crippled a lot of businesses; and I think on that particular day a lot more businesses in other areas, closed down prematurely. So, we don’t want to encourage that sort of thing at all. When I think about it, I tend to equate a bomb hoax, a bomb scare, with an act of terror. If the law looks at it that way, I think that will not only help with police investigations, but also help with deterring would-be criminals.”
