NY lawyers knock Giuliani crime plan

A LETTER from a New York-based legal organisation has cast further doubt on the effectiveness of a crime plan reportedly sent to the Trinidad and Tobago Government by that city’s former mayor, Rudolph Giuliani.

In a letter dated September 4, 2003, to Mexican Secretary of Public Security for the Federal District, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (LCHR) thanked Casaubon for forwarding a summary of the 146-point plan submitted to him by Giuliani and Partners. The company has reportedly sent a similar proposal to National Security Minister Martin Joseph, but last week Acting Prime Minister Joan Yuille-Williams said no such proposal was currently engaging the Government’s attention.

In its letter, the LCHR noted efforts to reform Mexican police institutions and particularly the Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSPDF) and that “the consultancy by the Giuliani Group has generated significant controversy over the direction in which it may push the SSPDF’s initiative.” “For all its good content, the proposals do not constitute a strategic plan. No document of 146 recommendations without a clear sense of priorities and means of achieving the key objectives can possibly serve the function,” the group stated. The LCHR said the Giuliani recommendations were strongest in the area of institutional and operational reform and strengthening but have “a relatively limited vision of community participation and the importance of public information.” The group pointed out that these latter elements “are likely to be of crucial importance in winning the uphill battle to sow public confidence” and “many of the proposals (or elements of specific proposals) presented by the Giuliani team suggest reforms that appear self-evident, long overdue and highly welcome.” “These are not necessarily the best or most important recommendations but those that are least controversial,” the LCHR said.

With specific reference to accountability and discipline within law enforcement agencies, the LCHR applauded recommendations in the Giuliani plan for an Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) as a watchdog for the Mexican police’s operations. However, the group expressed concern that the recommendations do not consider legislation to provide for the recruitment of quality officers for the IAU. The unit must be an independent body and is complemented by “an adjudicative body that can ensure fair processes and appropriate outcomes. Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday has said TT’s present constitution does not facilitate accountability on the part of the Police Commissioner and Giuliani agreed with him that the legislative framework was not in place for his (Giuliani’s) anti-crime plan to be effective.

Giuliani and Partners received US$4.3 million from “wealthy Mexican businesspeople fed up with the city’s chronic crime” to conduct a nine-month study of the plan’s feasibility, but the total cost to implement the plan over the next three years could exceed US$60 million. The LCHR concluded that Giuliani’s approach “is not the only option available, is subject to significant debate and given its controversial nature, it is necessary to explore alternatives as well as measure carefully the possible impact of such approaches in Mexico.”