Leader of the Opposition Myron V. Walwyn on Wednesday called on the Virgin Islands to tackle poverty, unemployment, lack of opportunity, mental health challenges and substance abuse as root causes of crime, warning that enforcement alone will not stop violence and disorder.

“I don’t believe people inherently want to get into a life of crime if there can be other opportunities for them to make a living,” Walwyn said at the opening of the Virgin Islands Anti-Crime Summit 2025. “We have to show them that going in that direction is not the direction to go.”

Walwyn said the Territory must give vulnerable people real alternatives to criminal activity by improving access to jobs, education, social support and rehabilitation. He urged the government to take a lead in addressing what he called the “antecedents of criminal activity,” including economic hardship and lack of dignity in work.

He also challenged residents to stop shielding family and friends involved in crime, saying that accountability can be a path to help. “Sometimes the people who are involved in criminal activity are our own family members and friends,” Walwyn said. “When we do not do the right thing and assist the police, we rob our own family and friends of the chance to be accountable and to get the desperate help that they need.”

Walwyn criticised the tendency to rely on policing after crimes have occurred. “We tend to always look to the police first when criminal activities take place — ‘what are the police doing?’ — but we have to be fair and understand that policing happens after the fact,” he said. “Much more emphasis needs to be placed on preventing criminal activity from happening in the first place.”

He warned the summit must not become a “talk shop” and renewed the Opposition’s call for a comprehensive crime reduction strategy with short-, medium- and long-term actions. “Let us not come here over the next two, three days, talk, sound good, say all the nice things, and then go back and absolutely nothing happens,” Walwyn said. “We need to know what we are going to do immediately, in the medium term and in the long term to address the issues of crime.”

Walwyn said tackling crime will require cooperation from government, opposition, businesses, schools, civil society and families. He stressed early intervention in education, recalling how trouble in school often signals future risks. “School is a training ground for life,” he said. “If you cannot follow the simple rules in the classroom, you will have grave difficulties following the rules of life when you get out here. It is better to be able to correct a child than have to remake an adult.”

He concluded with a call to act now to preserve the Virgin Islands’ long-standing sense of safety. “We must ensure that our home remains the safe, tranquil and peaceful place we know it to be,” he said.