CEO Bennett Says Mediation Has a Place but Must Have Limits

Another topic discussed with CEO Bennett was his views on mediation.  For many years, the Police Department has found itself pushing for mediation with gang members and criminal elements.  In some corners, the move has been frowned upon and in other sectors, it has been applauded.  According to Bennett, however, he has no issues with mediation but there has to be a limit.

Elton Bennett, CEO, Ministry of Home Affairs:“Crime fighting requires a multi-dimensional approach and mediation certainly is one and it has proven to be successful in certain areas. There are different criminal elements of society that require a different and hard approach. So it’s just applying the right amount of pressure where different societies would respond to or react in certain ways. So mediation is certainly a part of that in terms of achieving prevention or deterring further escalation. So with mediation out of the picture then you have a rapidly escalating situation. So mediation is very essential in crime fighting and security. So it’s a very important part of what we do. However the hard approach and the hard line of the work must be there as a form of coercion to show that, listen, you can either come online using or implementing these mediation initiatives or you can experience the hard approach. So it’s a combination of different approaches that would be successful and neither of the two or any of these approaches alone will solve the problems that we are facing today.”

We will have more on our interview with CEO Bennett in tomorrow’s newscast.