CRIME FREE-FOR-ALL

“Income, whether public or private is diminished by crime…Money (allocated to institutions) should no longer be an excuse for crime mismanagement or judicial inefficiency,” Deosaran said during his presentation at the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s annual post-Budget review yesterday at the Hyatt Regency in Portof- Spain. It is the law-abiding citizens who fear crime, he said, while criminals fear neither detection nor punishment.

Deosaran noted that in his Budget address, Finance Minister Colm Imbert mentioned that “these anti-social activities cannot continue.” The government has allocated $7.6 Billion to the Ministry of National Security — the biggest slice of the $53.5 billion Budget pie for Fiscal 2017, given to any ministry. Add that to the $25 billion spent on crime over the last five years and this means $32.6 billion was spent on National Security in the last six years.

“The country is entitled to ask where are the benchmarkers and measures to help ensure this money goes where it will be effectively used,” Deosaran said.

Minister Imbert, in the Budget, touched on white-collar crime, immigration and global security, the professor noted, and these, as well as house-breaking, robbery and violence are often driven by behaviours at the top, with allegations of big time greed and fraud at some state corporations now out of control.

“Such (behavior) at the top trickles downwards helping to corrupt the moral compass of the young. This means we now have to consider two societies — one struggling to remain lawful and productive and the other like parasites ravaging crime and property and attacking public safety,” he said. Alluding to allegations of weapons and human trafficking along the coastlines, Deosaran mused whether it was that security agencies were complicit in these activities or if government policies were just bad.

“For too long the authorities have allowed lawlessness to spread, unfortunately for political vote-catching reasons. And that must stop – no more squatting, private for hire cars. The Frankenstein’s monster is upon us,” he warned.

The country expects some high level of policy development and intervention that is professional-driven and less politically self serving than has been the case in the past, Deosaran continued. “I remain unhappy over the glaring fact that criminals show no fear for anybody or anything in the form of punishment and that is a serious weakness in the relevant institutions.

Institutions have failed and the burden of responsibility fall on the shoulders of the government,” he said. The safety of citizens, he added, is an imperative.

One of the challenges facing the government, however, are its constitutional limits as to what it is able to do with crime and justice. “A lot depends on other institutions that are independent yet government is held responsible for powers which it does not have. It must however use the powers that it does have,” he opined. The constitutional powers granted to the police commissioner to manage the Police Service do not seem to be working well while the Police Service Commission (PSC) is now a constitutional weakling seemingly unable to effectively to execute its now expensive oversight, Deosaran, a former PSC chairman, told the gathering.

Additionally, public dissatisfaction over police indiscipline and corruption undermines crime fighting. “Now is the time for the government to take the bull by its horns. Stop tinkering with police service. Conduct a performance audit, set up a special task force for quick delivery and embark on comprehensive police service reform,” he said.