When will crime drop ?

These incidents occurred the day after National Security Minister Martin Joseph put his already battered reputation on the line, when he boasted in Parliament that crime would drop "immediately" once the promised Scotland Yard detectives begin their operation. On that day, too, Trade Minister Ken Valley told the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association that the Government would lose the next general election if they didn’t deal with crime, hastening to assure his listeners that crime would, in fact, be dealt with. He did not, however, repeat his assertion of some months ago that crime would fall by year’s end.

But both Mr Joseph and Mr Valley have been far bolder than Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who asserted that crime is "temporary" — a term that could equally apply to 20 minutes or 20 years. Still, this now makes three leading Government officials whose words, by any reasonable interpretation, predict a significant decline in crime within the near future. But it is Mr Joseph we will hold strictly to his word, since "immediately", as far as we know, means at once.

We will, naturally, allow the National Security Minister some leeway. We do not expect the foreign detectives to come here on Sunday and see crime drop on Monday. We do not even expect the murder rate to drop by the end of the week, or the following week. Still, "immediately" is a strong term. It implies action now, and results in short order. So, if the National Security Minister knows whereof he speaks, we can reasonably expect to see results of some sort, say, six weeks after the foreign detectives have set up shop.

Now we hope that, if the crime rate continues to climb after that, Mr Joseph will not try to re-define the meaning of "immediately." We also hope the detectives will arrive within the next few weeks - the public certainly doesn’t expect Mr Joseph’s immediacy to mean late next year. Realistically speaking, though, crime has gone too far now for any measures to have immediate effect. Eye in the Sky, spy ships, threats to hang everyone on Death Row — all have failed. But it is reasonable to expect that measures can be taken that will have effects in the medium term - i.e. within a six-month period. What is notable about all the Government’s anti-crime initiatives, however, has been their unwillingness to make and implement hard decisions.

Buying technology and drafting legislation, after all, is relatively easy. But taking legal action against the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, weeding out crooked cops, raising entry requirements for applicants to the Police Service, creating a police bureaucracy run by civilians — these are all measures that would significantly change the system of law enforcement. Yet none of these appears to be on the Government’s agenda.

Could that be why the bicycle-riding shooter reportedly laughed in the face of the brave officer who chased him down? But perhaps we are wrong. Perhaps the Government’s strategies will indeed bear fruit. Time will tell - and our measure of time is now "immediately."