At its current trend, this country will experience the lowest total of reported serious crimes in 30 years, says acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams. He was speaking at Riverside Plaza, Port-of-Spain, where 75 officers from the Western and Port-of-Spain Divisions received commendations. Williams revealed figures which showed decrease from 2009, when T&T recorded its highest total number of serious crimes, 22,162.
He said the figure was reduced to 13,145 in 2013, the lowest for 29 years. For 2014, he said, the current figure was “anywhere around a 16 per cent reduction” compared to last year’s figures. Williams added: “What we have in T&T is a challenge around violent crime, violent crime fueled by the presence of firearms in this land and as an organisation, we have set ourselves firearm removal as a major thrust.
“Every single division has been mandated to focus on finding and seizing firearms. Every single police division, all nine, have been doing that.” Williams singled out officers assigned to the Western Division for making significant headway in that fight over the last year-and-a-half. The Western Division comprises the St James, West End, Maraval, Four Road and Carenage police stations.
However, he admitted citizens of T&T were focussed largely on the rate of murders and the Police Service must respect and honour the continued pleas for a safe country. Williams added: “At this point in time, there is a slight increase in murders in 2014 over 2013, while there is a major drop in all the other types (of crimes): Robberies, break-ins, larceny, including larceny (of) motor vehicle, where there is a 34 per cent reduction over last year’s figure.
“So we are seeing those changes but that is not very impacting on the minds of our citizens, once the murders continue to exist.”