Comfort patrols a waste of money

This programme has achieved no results, none whatsoever that justifies the millions of dollars spent monthly on people patrolling in comfort.

The programme was launched in 2014 and as of October 2015, it received around $65 million. The burden on the State in terms of money paid to the private security companies included capital and recurrent costs associated with staffing, leasing of vehicles, establishment of command centres, expansion of existing GPS and wireless communications systems, training, and related administrative overheads.

It is no surprise however that an Opposition MP is calling for a return of this programme.

The UNC government implemented the CCP and paid top dollar to private security companies to patrol communities.

It would be disappointing if somebody is looking for the usual political payday as opposed to trying to catch criminals by calling for a return of this programme in our current economic circumstances.

This programme was launched in an attempt to improve the perception of crime in communities by citizens.

The country was broken up into 15 sectors and the CCP has patrols in each community including Tobago West and East.

The move by the PNM Government to cease the operations and funding for this programme on December 3, 2016, is both strategic and highly necessary. In these tough economic times we cannot afford to pay out millions of dollars to a programme that is at best a smokescreen for comforting citizens.

Our detection and prosecution rates have not improved. The UNC government launched this programme in 2014 and increased the allocation by a further $4.5 million in January 2015. According to a newspaper report, at the time three companies were contracted — Protective Agencies Ltd, Amalgamated Security Services Ltd and Innovative Security Technologies Ltd.

There is one report of a Tobago man being killed by a CCP vehicle in an accident where the CCP driver lost control of the vehicle.

The second public CCP act that received attention was the odd occasion when two officers delivered a baby.

Although there have been positions advanced with regard to public/private sector initiatives as international common practice in some territories, we are no longer able to afford this expensive partnership.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani recommended, when he visited TT to advise on crime, that the police increase their patrols and outdoor presence as the service has enough manpower.

Ronald Huggins St Joseph