RSS to Bolster Security for Major International Conference in Antigua and Barbuda

By Aabigayle McIntosh

The Regional Security Services (RSS) will be enlisted to assist local law enforcement to ensure adequate security is provided during Antigua and Barbuda’s hosting of the 4^th International Conference of Small Island Developing States or (SID4).

Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Lionel Hurst said the government is confident the international conference will be safe and a major success. 

“Many of the heads will arrive days before and will depart a few days later and will be staying in various sites around the country.

We must ensure that we have to ensure that they are safe in Antigua and until they depart,” Hurst said.

Hurst also praised the RSS for the track record it has set in crime and disaster response for small states.

“We loan policemen and firemen to each other at a time of crisis or when the adequacy of the police force requires policemen who have many years of training,” Hurst said.

The country will welcome some 3-thousand delegates from across the world for the conference, slated May 27 to May 30.

Legal sources have revealed that the main reason for making judge-alone trials permanent is that it has helped reduce the backlog of cases that has been an issue for the High Court for several years.

Additionally, there have been issues with juries in the past, and having a judge sitting alone makes for timely efficiency in the court system.