Let the PM judge me

Pressed for a comment on this issue yesterday as he toured the Central crime hotspot of Enterprise in Chaguanas, Dillon said he will keep his personal thoughts on his performance as Minister to himself.

Yesterday, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar called on Prime Minister Rowley to take personal responsibility for the National Security portfolio in the face of at least 420 murders committed since the September 5 General Election when the People’s National Movement (PNM) was voted into office.

Asked by reporters how he rated his own performance as he nears the one year anniversary as Minister of National Security, Dillon said: “I leave my performance to be rated by the Prime Minister and the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

To me, it is an internal assessment I do and I continue to do every day. I leave it to myself. I rate myself and criticize myself more than anybody else.” Regarding the 420 murders reportedly committed since the PNM assumed office, Dillon argued that it was important that murder is not looked at in terms of statistics.

“We can’t just deal with murder in terms of statistics because when you boil it down to a measure of statistics, it means that you lose the sense of caring and concern that would affect somebody’s brother, somebody’s sister, somebody’s son, somebody’s nephew who may have lost a loved one through crime.” Dillon stated that he found it more important to focus on being concerned and finding solutions to the issue of crime.

Minister Dillon, Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier General Rodney Smart, Deputy Commissioner of Police Wayne Dick, Deputy Commissioner of Police Deodath Dulalchan and other senior police personnel toured the Enterprise community. Dillon said the purpose of the tour was to “liaise with the divisional commander on the ground to see for myself, to treat with any issues, any challenges, to get a chance to talk with the people from the area on a first hand basis what are the issues from their standpoint with respect to crime and criminality in the area.” Asked why Enterprise was chosen out of all other communities, Dillon said that his walk-through Soogrim Trace earlier this year had positive effects and hoped the same could happen for Enterprise.

During the tour, Dillon said he supports the Police Service in dealing with crime and reiterated the role the police and a community plays in curbing crime in respective areas. This came two days after the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) made a call to the Prime Minister to make Divisional Commanders more accountable for crime in their area.

Dillon, reminded the media of a strategy that was adopted in April where Deputy Commissioners took a new responsibility over “high risk” regions across the nation to interact daily with the divisional commanders and advise them on how to deal with crime in those divisions.

Asked for practical examples for how exactly this strategy worked, Dillon referred to a change in the style of language used by Divisional Commanders recently that showed their sense of ownership for their areas. “I think you would have seen conversations coming out where the divisional commanders are in fact saying “in my division, I am taking charge of this and I am taking charge of that. You would have heard it quite recently...you are seeing the ownership being taken.”