DOMA: Crime as bad as it could get

“The regular police often complain to us that their work is made more difficult by the absence of City Police, and it’s not a manpower issue. There are a lot of City Police providing service that has nothing to do with Downtown City Ordinance and we would like to see that changed before we get into a question of adding more resources.

“Unfortunately, for Port-of-Spain and citizens for the entire country, the year is ending on the same note on which it began. We are in a constant state of lawlessness and we have yet to see any effective mechanism for law and order,” Aboud said. He added that the country needs better law enforcement and a mechanism by which officers who are performing their duties are those given priority in terms of promotions.

“What we have had are a number of speeches, a number of promises, press conferences and communications specialists making statements.

But tragically for those persons who are losing their lives and the rest who are scared, the country cannot be run with press conferences or by communications specialists.

The Police Service cannot and should not be allowed to become a place where persons decide whether or not they are going to do do their job. It should be a place where everybody is on board and everyone is doing their job,” Aboud said. “I would like to suggest that the Central Government rethink its plan about adding additional officers to the Municipal Police.

The Municipal Police Services are not at this time performing the duties that they should be performing in our towns and cities and many of them are absentees.

Many of the business people cannot tell you the last time they saw a patrol by Municipal Police, and we don’t think that we should attempt to add additional manpower resources in an area where there is such a total collapse of service. We should try to first reinstate the service and then we could think about adding more resources.

“It is a terrible story to end the year on the note which we first began, but until we get the facts, until we understand what needs to be done with respect to security service, we are always going to be having these interviews to get our reaction to what is happening in East PoS,” Aboud said. Aboud said since the increase of crime in East PoS, the East PoS Development Company has not been able to attract a single investment because of these very conditions.

“What we have to guard against is allowing these conditions to spread westward. We need to address the condition of East.

People of East Port-of- Spain are entitled to police service, surveillance and law and order in the same way that everyone else is. The citizens are a valuable attachment to East PoS; they represent not only a customer base but also our staff,” Aboud said.