Published:
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley made an important observation as he opened the new Besson Street Police Station a few days ago. He said police officers need to “walk the streets and make human contact,” and he rightly concluded that a feeling of safety among citizens is key to “winning the fight against crime.”
This was the principle of Canadian Dwayne Gibbs who held the post of commissioner of police from 2011 to 2013.
He was aghast that police officers were sitting in air-conditioned vehicles and stations and directed that they “hit the streets.”
Gibbs demanded accountability from divisional heads.
He said they needed to take responsibility and ensure they were doing all that they had to do to protect the country.
It is now history that Gibbs and his deputy Jack Ewatski were criticised by the Police Service Commission and sent packing by then National Security Minister Jack Warner and the Kamla Persad-Bissessar government.
However, had that small initiative been implemented and maintained, over time citizens would have started feeling more secure and a relationship of trust established that could have gone a long way in fighting crime.
We applaud Dr Rowley for telling officers “Come down on the streets and talk to those who need the police.”
Perhaps no recent incident highlights the shortcomings of law enforcement more than the murder of Shannon Banfield on the compound of IAM and Company on Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain.
It showed up the abysmal detection rate of the T&T Police Service, although that worrying fact was not mentioned by National Security Minister Edmund Dillon when he gave an account of recent police “successes” in Port-of-Spain and environs.
In fact, citizens got very little solace from the statistics presented by Minister Dillon at the very same function at Besson Street, when he reported that murders are down by 38.1 per cent in the Port-of-Spain Division, robberies by 30.1 per cent, kidnappings by 75 per cent, woundings and shootings by 65 per cent.
As the year comes to an end, is Minister Dillon in a position to reassure us that the police will be out in communities ensuring peace and safety?
Why is it that less than five per cent of the population are so free to hold the rest to ransom? Why has the number of gangs been allowed to grow, so that they are now infiltrating schools and luring children to lives of crime? What is the plan to deal with these issues and is Minister Dillon the man to get the job done?
Dr Rowley hit the nail on the head when he said the quality and effectiveness from the TTPS will deliver the results the country is looking for in response to unacceptable levels of violent crime in many districts.
Indeed, the matter of the effectiveness of the TTPS must be addressed with urgency.
Police officers need to be as swift to solve other murders and missing person cases as they were in the Shannon Banfield case.
They cannot be perceived as being selective in how they solve crime, because every citizen deserves justice.
All of the nice-sounding words about fighting crime and cracking down on law breakers must be more than talk.
Less talk, more action, should be the national security strategy in the coming year.
Editorial
Police at the scene where Sean Thomas was killed while driving along Queen Street, Port-of-Spain on Friday.
PHOTO: KERWIN PIERRE