“Us sitting here — we’re not going to get anything out of the police because they are under the Governor and they’re not going to report anything to us. I had three murders in my district within 10 days — the first two were within four days [of each other] and to this day I as district representative, I haven’t received any form of notification from any police. So I don’t expect anything to happen from that angle,” Fraser said in the House of Assembly on April 20 while elected leaders stood to denounce the recent shooting of Catherine Pickering in Paraquita Bay.

Although the police are responsible for law enforcement, Fraser said elected leaders have a responsibility to all residents and must do their part to stem the spike in violent crimes.

“What has happened with this recent shooting is unconscionable. It should have driven home a nail within all of us,” Fraser said before urging residents not to turn a blind eye to crime and violence.

“We cannot continue to walk the streets of the BVI believing that ‘if it didn’t happen to me, [then] it didn’t happen’. It’s happening to all of us. We hear about tonnes of cocaine and millions being confiscated. We have a responsibility,” Fraser pointed out.

He added: “At some point, all 13 of us have to get together and make crime a priority or else at some point it will become our personal responsibility because it will affect us.”

Opposition leader Marlon Penn has made a similar call for collaboration on crime among the elected leaders of the territory.