Dillon: Army base in Enterprise soon

Dillon made this disclosure as he commented on the latest set of murders that took place in TT over the weekend and yesterday.

Among the persons murdered was a relative of Selwyn “Robocop” Alexis, who was murdered earlier this year.

Speaking with reporters during a break in an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative seminar at Tower D of the Port-of- Spain International Waterfront Centre, Dillon said, “My concern is really reducing the murder rate as much as possible. All efforts are geared towards that.” After he noted the murders of Alexis’ relative and other persons, reporters asked Dillon whether any drastic measures would be taking place next year to bring the murder rate down.

Dillon said, “We continue to improve our operational capabilities, we continue to provide what is required for the police service to do what is necessary to provide continued support to them by the Defence Force.” Dillon, a former Chief of Staff of the Defence Force, then disclosed, “To that extent, we are in fact going to be setting up a sort of a forward base in Enterprise with the Army.

Informing reporters that the Army now operates out of El Socorro, Dillon envisioned the establishment of, “a firm base in Enterprise within the next week or so, where we will have a presence in Enterprise.” Reiterating that there is always room for improvement in terms of anti-crime measures, Dillon said, “Strategies are tested on the ground and we continue to adjust as we go along.” He told reporters, “You would have seen the police doing operations in Enterprise. This morning, you will them in Sea Lots and they continue to do so in various areas where they have identified, based on intelligence, a number of activities are taking place.” Noting intelligence is what drives security operations, Dillon explained, “To a large extent, if your intel is sound, you have a better chance of success in your operations.” Dillon said he was pleased to see the commanders of various police divisions starting to take charge of the areas under their jurisdiction and hoped this would go further.

“I want see that drill down, not only to just the commanders but down to station inspector, down to the sergeant, down to corporals, down to the constables on the beat,” the minister said.

Dillon said there is a statistical element to crime that cannot be measured, “in terms of the lives of somebody’s brother, somebody’s sister, somebody’s nephew.” On the community policing initiative which Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley spoke about on October 30, Dillon said that strategy is being adopted and advanced by Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams.

While he could not give a time frame for the rollout of this initiative, he admitted that community policing has been tried before.

Dillon said the focus needs to be more refined to the extent, “where the police and the community are in a symbiotic relationship.” On October 30, Rowley also spoke about the launch of a Nationwide Crime Prevention Education and Mobilisation Programme that will give every citizen “from elementary school age and upwards” an opportunity to become involved in finding solutions to deal with crime.