SEPTEMBER 2015 THE MONTH RECORDED FOR HAVING THE MOST MURDERS

BLOODY SEPTEMBER by NEWSDAY REPORTERS Saturday, October 3 2015 click on pic to zoom in WITH 50 murders on record, September has been described by Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams, as the most violent month for the year so far. Williams said there was no study which could clearly signal the cause and effect relationship surrounding the spike, but he expressed the view that among the considerations being given is that it is all built around the issue of the number of firearms which are in the country illegally. For the year, 326 murders have been committed. “Firearms entering this country illegally are impacting this country in a significant way,” Williams said during a wide ranging early morning interview on radio station i95 FM yesterday. “Eighty-two percent of all of the murders committed in 2015 have been committed with a firearm. So firearms are making a major impact on the violence in Trinidad and Tobago…So we have the murders and then we have shootings and woundings, so firearms are contributing in a significant way.” He said the overall situation was also negatively impacting this country, adding, “we have to find a way to fix the problem we are confronted with.” Williams also touched on the issue of a much called for gun amnesty, saying if Government decides on such a course, he would carry out the policy. But he insisted that such an amnesty, on the basis of global evidence, has not worked. He pointed to the success of the Police Service in taking guns off the street, revealing that for 2015 so far, they have seized 477 firearms — 32 more than for the same period last year — and some 6,400 rounds of ammunition. The total number of firearms seized by police for 2014 was 585. “So the amnesty is not the major issue,” Williams suggested. “It is how can we stop the entry because the more you take off and the more that come in, you are not solving the problem and you have the issue of guns being used, 82 percent as I have said. “That is why I speak of border protection and that is why I said it is encouraging because inside of the very said new government policy is about border protection, setting up a Border Protection Agency, and for me that shows there is hope. If you can focus on border protection and we can stop the flow of the firearms, you can get the guarantee of the Police Service we can take the firearms off the street.” Williams also welcomed other concepts outlined in the manifesto of the People’s National Movement in the run-up to the September 7 General Election. “Prior to an election, one of the things you do as a leader, you have to look at what is likely to happen in the context of future governments and manifestos,” Williams said. “And we now have a new government formed through the PNM and their manifesto has actually touched on the things I wanted a government to focus on.” He cited in particular the concept of a whole-of-government approach which he described as the first starting point in addressing the security of a country. He said this is a matter that he had raised at different fora, but that it had not been taken seriously. The approach he said was to bring various ministries of government together to work towards addressing the problem of security and crime. Pointing to the concerns in a community like Laventille in the Port-of-Spain Division of the Police Service, Williams said the police took the lead in the past to address the problems. “When you go out to the communities, their concern is not about the police,” Williams said. “Their concerns are social issues the police cannot address. Their starting point is employment, the conditions of their street, garbage, drainage. All those matters are matters which become relevant to the communities. So the conditions are social in nature which they raise with you (the police) which you cannot really deal with. So you really require the additional support from the various ministries.” He gave as an example the Ministry of Community Development providing community centres where people “can gather and engage and learn things.” “These are the issues which come up,” Williams said, “So whole-of-government approach allows all the resources at the disposal of the state to be brought to bear on what social issue and you can have a far greater effect in addressing crime.” Williams also dilated on the issue of “Hot Spot policing” which the police introduced in 2013, and which he said has been responsible for a significant reduction in crime. He revealed that the police located 256 hot spots spread across the nine divisions of the Police Service in Trinidad and Tobago on which they have been placing emphasis. Pointing to the success of that approach, Williams said on its introduction in 2013, crime went down by 26.3 percent during that year, meaning that the numbers moved from 17,814 incidents to 13,147. “That has been the biggest drop ever in the history of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service over any one-year period,” Williams boasted. He said the next closest to that would have been during the period of the state of emergency in 2011 in which there was a 21.1 percent drop. “But what we saw after the state of emergency is that crime went back up,” he continued. “With hot spot policing we got 26.3 percent drop which is higher than the state of emergency, without locking down the people and they not being able to leave home.” “What we were seeking to do is to see if this was sustainable, to see if this will continue, if the drop will continue, and in 2014 we continued with the effort and we saw crime further dropped to 12,057. In 2015, we are using the same continuation of the strategy and we are running at 11 percent reduction, and if that continues, it will take crime under 11,000.