Homework for the police

What’s important now for us are: (1) what did these police divisions do differently to achieve these results and (2) how can these positive lessons be transferred to the other police divisions that were not that successful.

This is the homework that the Trinidad and Tobago police should be working on now feverishly.

It’s also noticeable that the detection rate for murders in Trinidad and Tobago was well below the 30 per cent rate; it was 19 per cent for the first six months. It means, therefore, that the detection rates for the other serious crimes were much higher and this pulled up the overall detection rate.

We are very concerned about the detection rate for murder and want the police service to have a special focus on this.

It means that out of the 251 murders committed from January to June, only 48 have been detected and 203 are yet to be solved. This is where we need more emphasis to be placed by all of us, not just the police service.

However, given the severe lack of public confidence in the police service, there’s little role that the public is willing to play at this point in time as the public is also very fearful for their lives in simply reporting matters and becoming witnesses.

So, the burden is falling unfortunately mainly on the shoulders of the police service and it may be, in part, their own doing.

IAN RAMDHANIE via email