As Antigua and Barbuda grapples with persistent challenges of violent crime, senior legislator Senator Lamin Newton is pushing for widespread community action, calling on residential groups across the twin-island nation to launch and expand neighborhood watch initiatives as a core pillar of the country’s anti-crime strategy.
Speaking during an interview on the popular local current affairs radio show *Beneath the Surface*, Newton outlined that collective public participation is just as critical to crime reduction as official law enforcement operations. He emphasized that local residents hold a unique advantage in spotting out-of-the-ordinary activity in their own neighborhoods, a vantage point that no external police patrol can fully replicate.
“What I’m calling on communities to do is to get more neighborhood watches going,” Newton told listeners. “That is a part of crime-fighting as well.”
Newton laid out a clear action plan for residents: any time an individual observes behavior that feels suspicious or out of place, they must not stay silent. Instead, they should immediately reach out to local police to share details and alert nearby neighbors to the potential risk. These simple, proactive steps, he argued, act as a powerful deterrent to criminal groups that rely on community inaction and silence to operate undetected.
A core point of Newton’s message pushed back against the common narrative that crime mitigation falls exclusively to the country’s top leadership and law enforcement bodies. He stressed that crime and violence are not problems that can be solved by Prime Minister Gaston Browne, the national Cabinet, police departments, or other law enforcement agencies working alone.
“The issue of crime and violence is a national issue,” he said. “It’s an issue that requires the collaboration of the entire country so that we can address the situation.”
In addition to calling for cross-sector collaboration, Newton urged political leaders and citizens alike to set aside partisan divisions when discussing public safety. He argued that the security of communities is far too critical a priority to be turned into a political football, and that meaningful progress can only be achieved when people work together across party lines.
When fully implemented, Newton explained, coordinated neighborhood watch partnerships between residents and police will strengthen layered community surveillance, streamline the flow of intelligence between the public and law enforcement, and create an environment where criminal actors can no longer operate in the shadows. Newton’s remarks came during a broader on-air discussion covering multiple pressing public safety topics, including rising gun violence, sentencing reform, and the ongoing need for aligned action between government institutions, law enforcement, and everyday citizens to protect residential communities across the country.