As firearm-linked homicides continue their upward trajectory across Barbados, the Mia Mottley-led administration is moving to reactivate the National Advisory Council on Citizen Security, a key anti-crime body that has not convened since the February general election, multiple sources close to the process have confirmed to Barbados TODAY.
The council was first established in 2024, born from urgent public outcry after a devastating wave of gun violence that culminated in a mass shooting in Bridgetown’s Nelson Street. That attack left three men dead, eight others injured, and two additional children wounded in separate connected incidents, prompting Prime Minister Mottley to label the shootings a shocking, reckless string of attacks targeting vulnerable Barbadian citizens. At the time of its launch, Mottley tasked the body with developing evidence-based, comprehensive solutions to the island’s growing crime crisis, with a core focus on advising the government on updated anti-gang legislation and a national gun amnesty program.
Over its initial tenure, the council made notable progress, contributing to draft crime legislation and submitting policy recommendations across a range of public safety related areas. But the body faced early structural turmoil when its founding chair, law professor Velma Newton, stepped down just over a year into her post, citing deep-rooted operational flaws that hampered the council’s ability to deliver results.
In her resignation letter to the prime minister, Newton outlined that she had delayed her own long-term professional commitments to take the role, drawn by a commitment to addressing national violence, but fundamental planning oversights undermined the work from the start. She criticized the original 24-member structure as unwieldy, noting that a large share of appointed members were unable to attend regular meetings or contribute to the baseline research needed to map existing social support services for at-risk youth, disabled people, and affected families. Adding to the dysfunction, Newton revealed that no dedicated administrative secretary was allocated to the council, even after a formal budget was submitted to the responsible ministry shortly after launch. For nearly nine months, she wrote, the chair and one non-council volunteer were solely responsible for all data collection and member correspondence.
Just days after the council’s initial formation, the Prime Minister’s Office announced an expansion that added three lay community members and an additional stakeholder group, after a wide range of civil society organizations and individual experts reached out offering to contribute. Mottley noted at the time that she sought to avoid overburdening the full council with excessive membership, but planned to co-opt additional specialists to join smaller working sub-committees focused on specific policy areas.
The scale of Barbados’s violence crisis has grown increasingly alarming in the years since the council was launched. In 2024, the island recorded an initial count of 49 murders, representing a 158% jump from the prior year, with an additional manslaughter case bringing the final total to 50 – the highest number of annual homicides ever recorded in Barbados’s history. That record high remained unchanged last year, and five months into the current year, the island has already recorded 25 killings, the vast majority linked to gun violence.
The council is currently chaired by Senate President Reginald Farley, and the Mottley administration is preparing to formally reconstitute the body to resume its work on addressing the national violence crisis.