Attorney General Dale Marshall has dismissed as “absolute nonsense” suggestions that the Mia Mottley administration’s push to regulate vehicle tint gives the impression it is soft on crime.
He was responding to concerns raised in the Senate on Wednesday during debate on the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill, where Independent Senator Dr Crystal Drakes warned that the messaging surrounding the legislation may not inspire public confidence amid rising violent crime.
When asked specifically whether the measure made the administration appear weak on crime prevention, Marshall firmly rejected the claim, pointing to a series of policy and legislative actions he said reflect the government’s tough stance on law enforcement.
“That’s absolute nonsense. We have appointed judges to make sure that criminal cases go through the system quickly. We have increased the number of prosecutors. We’ve funded the police service at a higher level than ever in its history. We’ve passed stronger bail legislation,” he told Barbados TODAY.
“We’ve done so many things to make the life of criminals harder. Look at the success rate of the Police Service—they have what they call a solvability ratio of 66 per cent, which is higher than anywhere else in the region. So to say that we’re soft on crime is absurd.”
Marshall stressed that the new tint provisions, which take effect on September 1, were introduced at the request of The Barbados Police Service and are intended to improve officer safety and enforcement clarity—not serve as a crime deterrent on their own.
“What they’re not getting is that we’ve never said that regulating tint will solve or prevent crime. We never said that,” he stated. “There’s currently a law related to tint, but it’s very subjective. What we’ve been asked by the police to do is to put a measure in place that protects them. If a vehicle is black out, what police officer is going to approach it?”
The attorney general maintained that the legislation is a practical, narrowly focused intervention that complements a wider suite of measures aimed at tackling crime across the country.
Also speaking on the matter during a press conference held on Thursday, Prime Minister Mia Mottley strongly defended the move, underscoring that the decision was driven by security concerns and not political calculation.
“A political party and a government doesn’t like to do what is unpopular, but when the police, the people who protect us, come to us and say, ‘prime minister, members of the Security Council, we need this measure introduced’, we have to act,” she said.
Referencing a recent shooting on Broad Street involving a dark-tinted vehicle, Mottley, like the AG, said officers approaching such cars are often unsure of the danger they might face.
“They don’t know whether they’re underreacting, overreacting, whether their life is in their hand, whether they will be standing,” she said. “That is the reality of what we are facing.”
Prime Minister Mottley identified widespread use of dark tint and the concealment of identity using masks and hoodies as two specific elements that increase public and police risk.
“While I would like to be able to say that we cannot cause everybody an inconvenience, when I put the inconvenience to the individual in the scales against the risk to the life of the handful of people who we have protecting us every day and every night, I don’t need to tell you where the scales are landing,” she said.
The Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill outlines specific limits on the darkness of vehicle tints and introduces penalties starting at $500 for non-compliance.
It also grants exemptions for vehicles assigned to the president, prime minister, law enforcement, prison and emergency medical services, the Defence Force, and persons with approved medical conditions.
(SM)
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