Premier Natalio D. Wheatley on September 24, urged residents to take personal and collective responsibility for confronting crime in the Territory, saying the fight must begin with stronger families, better-supported schools and safer communities.

Speaking at the opening of the Virgin Islands Anti-Crime Summit 2025, Wheatley said the three-day meeting is an opportunity for every sector of society to come together to find solutions. “This crime summit is about everyone in the society who recognises that crime is a problem that we have to solve, coming together to discuss, to dialogue, to strategise, to come up with ideas so that we can collectively decide that we will go out into the community, empowered, energised, equipped to be able to go into our communities and to make a difference and to make a change,” he said.

Wheatley acknowledged long-term social challenges that have contributed to violence and antisocial behaviour. Citing Proverbs 22:6, he said, “Train up a child in the way that he or she should go, so that when he or she is old, he or she will not depart from it. I recognise that in our society we have fallen short, and crime is the evidence that we have fallen short in some ways.”

The premier called for renewed focus on the institutions that shape young people. “We have to strengthen the institution of the family … we need to strengthen the institution of the school, where many of our children spend more time than with their parents, and we need to ensure that the family and the school work together for a stronger young person,” he said. “We also need to strengthen our community, because despite what the family does, despite what the school does, if we have those negative influences in our community, those young persons who are particularly vulnerable can fall by the wayside.”

Wheatley said the summit was not about immediately solving crime but about uniting the community behind prevention and change. “I don’t expect that over the next three days we’re going to solve the challenge of crime,” he said. “But what I do expect is for us as a community to come together and to put our hands up to say, I’m going to be a part of the solution.”

The premier ended on a message of hope and determination. “I’m hopeful, I’m prayerful, I’m optimistic that as a society we will find what is necessary … that we will dig deep within ourselves to be able to come together as a community,” he said. “These precious Virgin Islands and the young people and the generations to come are worth our efforts.”