A combined effort is needed to fight crime

The Chamber is not immune to the national mood of ever-deepening concern with the failure to make significant inroads with the detection, arrest and prosecution of murderers. With just three months to the end of 2016, there have been 333 murders up to the time of writing, compared to 321 (according to news reports) for the same period last year. It would seem that not much progress is being made in decreasing the incidence of murder from year to year.

But it is not just the quantity of murders. There have been more and more incidents of hitherto ‘hidden’ crimes coming to the surface - fearful abuse of children, human trafficking and even torture of animals grabbing headlines some months ago. These are all symptomatic of a society that has become not only willing, but unafraid to prey on the most vulnerable.

The sophistication of crimes has also been on the increase over years. The Chamber recalls the 2013 robbery involving a security transport van in Macoya and the 100-million dollar shipment of cocaine contained in locally manufactured juice cans in 2014 as well as the high-profile murder of Dana Seetahal. As far as we know, no arrests were ever made in these crimes.

It can be expected that in tomorrow’s budget presentation, National Security will once again receive a major chunk of the ministerial allocations, and those funds will need to be carefully administered to ensure the best value for money.

As far back as 2004, this Chamber, along with 21 private sector organisations, submitted to the then leadership 44 crime fighting initiatives. Although most of the proposals contained therein deliberately required no legislative changes in order to allow for speedy implementation, there has been only inconsistent efforts to implement and sustain the majority of recommendations.

Some of the measures the Chamber had suggested to Government include a programme for rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders, improved crime management tools and addition of necessary modern day technologies used elsewhere as a routine part of crime reduction management to bring our law enforcement into the 21st century.

The basic infrastructure necessary for a properly functioning system of law and order simply must be put into place, such as the timely appointment of a permanent commissioner of police, increased and more sophisticated monitoring of our borders to stem the illegal trade in arms, drugs and persons, and elimination of delays in the trial and appeals process.

The perpetrators of homicides are no respecters of person or office, and citizens of TT deserve to feel safe in their communities, schools, places of work and homes.

We acknowledge that the authorities cannot do it all alone, something that has been stated repeatedly. To be sure, citizens at all strata have a significant role to play if we wish to create a better society. To quote philosopher, Edmund Burke: “Evil can only triumph if good people do nothing. Action is required”.