Roseau, Dominica, September 29, 2025-Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has confirmed the presence of the Regional Security System (RSS) in Dominica for what he claims “to assist law enforcement in ridding the streets of illegal firearms.”
He announced during a press conference on Monday, September 29, 2025, in response to questions from the press.
The Regional Security System (RSS) was created out of a need for a collective response to security threats, which were impacting the stability of the region in the early 1970s and 1980s.
In October 1982, four members of the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States, namely, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Barbados to provide for “mutual assistance on request”. St. Kitts and Nevis joined after gaining independence in September 1983, and Grenada in January 1985. The MOU was updated in 1992, and the RSS acquired juridical status in March 1996 by way of the Treaty, which was signed in St. George’s, Grenada.
“Yes, the RSS is in Dominica, and the RSS is here to support the police in eradicating the presence of illegal firearms. Anyone who has it, we take it from you…and one may say it is just a few murders, but every country started with one, and it got to 15, and it got to 25, and it got to 67, and it got to 100, and it got to 600,” Prime Minister Skerrit remarked
“And so, the Regional Security System was established to support each other in maintaining and enhancing the security of the region, but also the security of each member-state. On the advice of the Chief of Police and the Minister of National Security, who agree, to have the RSS join the police in our efforts towards eradicating the presence of illegal firearms in the country.”
According to him, the security of the state and the citizens and residents of Dominica is “the government’s priority.”
“If the country is unsafe, then everything else will fail. And we do not want to have a situation in Dominica where we cannot drive freely or go to the beach, or go to the river, or are afraid to walk the streets,” he said.
“We have to ensure that this doesn’t happen in Dominica and that the respect for life is paramount, and that…violence and the presence of illegal firearms in our country does not become commonplace.”
Skerrit also mentioned that his government announced several measures to either eliminate or curb the presence of illegal firearms in Dominica.
“I have made it clear, openly, I meet a lot of people on the streets and I say to them that marijuana is illegal under the law, but this is not a priority fight for the state…the priority fight for the country now is illegal firearms,” Skerrit stated.
He warned that his government “will not sit idly by and not seek to try all of the opportunities that are available to the state and the police to bring a sense of calm and normalcy to our country.”
According to Skerrit, while the government recognizes that the recent incidents are targeted, “every life is important, and no one has the authority to take anybody’s life under any circumstance.”