Despite the new year being marred by the murder of pensioner Vernon Carter, National Security Minister Gary Griffith assured that the law enforcement bodies will continue to display the determination to keep crime and criminal elements at bay.
Griffith also boasted that homicides and serious crimes were drastically reduced when compared to the previous years. He said this would not have been be possible without hard-working lawmen who continued to risk their lives for the country. “I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the hard-working men and women of our combined law enforcement community for the sterling performance demonstrated in the last 12 months. “Immense thanks to all the heads of divisions who made this possible, including the acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams and the Chief of Defence Staff Major General Kenrick Maharaj who rallied the troops on a daily basis to ensure criminals were pegged back,” Griffith said in an interview yesterday.
He said in the latter part of 2014, due to a massive effort by the Ministry of National Security, there was a major reduction in homicides which resulted in a reduced homicide rate when compared to 2013. Saying there was also a reduction in violent crimes Griffith added, “2014 set a record for with the lowest number of serious crimes in this country in 31 years. It must be noted that 2014 could not have ended on a better note given that in the last two weeks of the year this country recorded the lowest homicide rate in comparison to the corresponding period for the last six years.”
He said in 2014 there were 11,600 serious crimes which, compared to five years ago in 2009, was over 22,000. “What this means is that there was one less serious crime every hour throughout the year when compared to 2009. The last full year before we were in office there was one less murder, one less rape, one less kidnapping or attempted kidnapping, one less car theft, one less assault, one less incident of armed robbery or grievous bodily harm every hour,” Griffith said.
Focusing on incidents which brought the Police Service into disrepute Griffith urged the public not to lose confidence. “It would be remiss of me to not touch on the couple of issues that brought the protective services into disrepute in the closing month of the year, but in a team this size there would unfortunately be members who lose their way. “That must not be allowed to affect the morale of those who remain focused on our mission to make T&T crime-free, and it certainly should not affect the confidence placed in us by the public,” Griffith added.
T&T marred by savagery-PNM
But the PNM is not convinced by Griffith’s assurances. The party’s public relations officer Senator Faris Al-Rawi yesterday questioned the true figure of this country’s detection rate. “T&T is in 2015 and we are politically five years away from 2010. Criminality and savagery is no respector of good tidings or positive intention. We had a murder just five minutes into the new year and oddly enough the commissioner of police is today reported as admitting that the detection rate has stood on average at 15 per cent for the last five years. “We simply do not believe or accept this figure is 15 per cent especially as the detection and conviction rate for murders stands at most three per cent and that includes murder suicide statistics," Al-Rawi said.
He said the admission of more officers to the homicide investigation bureau does not speak to the fact that it has taken five years to begin to reoutfit that unit. “One wonders therefore why the government stoutly refuses to introduce anonymous witness evidence measures into our laws which are successfully utilised in other jurisdictions and which of course has been proposed by the PNM in its multipoint plan. “Instead the government plays smart with foolishness by yet again raising the spectre of constitutional amendment to reintroduce hangings. This is an absurdity because the current law is that the punishment for murder is death by hanging,” Al-Rawi said.
He added that no explanation has been given by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar as the head of the National Security Council as to why not one single execution has taken place under her watch over the last give years.