POLICE believe that juveniles are responsible for breaking and stealing items from vehicles at areas frequented by tourists, according Public Safety Commissioner Edward C. Camacho.
“It’s summer time. We feel like some of our own juveniles are participating in this kind of activities at Wing Beach, Obyan Beach, Ladder Beach and a lot of areas that are pretty isolated,” Camacho told reporters.
Camacho said “it is unfortunate that some people are taking advantage of the situation by attacking the most vulnerable victims—tourists.”
DPS is implementing several measures to prevent such crimes to happen, he added.
“We will be conducting surveillance and other types of covert activities to ensure that these kinds of things don’t continue to happen specifically in the areas frequented by tourists,” he said.
Camacho also assured that police are still going to pursue the perpetrators even if the victims did not file complaints or had already left the commonwealth.
“An act of crime is an act against the community and the government. We still need to pursue that. We don’t want to leave these cases hanging and then become one of those unsolved mysteries,” he said.
“For me personally and in the eyes of our own officers, all of these cases should be pursued so that we can take action against the perpetrators. People committing the crimes, whether there is a victim or not—we are still going to pursue them and charge them for their illegal acts,” Camacho said.
Some vendors, however, are not interested in pursuing shoplifting cases as long as they recover the stolen items, he said.
“That makes us look bad because we just have to put it in the files that’s not ever going to be solved. It’s an act of crime and we are going all the way and see what we can do to prosecute the perpetrators. If we don’t do that, the deterrence is not going to be there. We have to go for it no matter how minute it is,” he added.
