PM: Crime stats useless if people don’t feel safe

Delivering the main address yesterday at the opening of the police station, Rowley said, “That is why the crime plan of this Government is to work with the police from the National Security Council level to the municipal police. The objective is to provide support and resources, recruit the best for the service, get rid of those who are unfit to serve and strengthen the service with new talent. If we stay in the jobs, we believe we can in the fight.

That is our plan.” Statistics cited earlier by National Security Minister Edmund Dillon, that there was a 14 percent drop in serious crimes this year, from last year’s stats, PM Rowley said these statistics would come to nought if people still feel a sense of insecurity where they live, work and gather.

“It is not the statistics of last year, number versus this year’s number, that will give us the comfort that we are looking for. I have not heard statistics that put the elements of fear of crime in any numerical way,” he said.

“Until we bring down the element fear of crime and criminality in all our communities, the society will not accept that we are in fact making the kind of progress that we expect.” On walking in Portof- Spain or any community in the country, he said, “The one thing we cannot do is to allow imps to believe they have control of any street or any quarter in this country.” The police cannot accept that, he said, and Government will not accept it.

While the police service has its job cut out, Rowley said that people must also be accountable to themselves.

“When a family member can walk in full public view of another family member and gun down a junior, that is not something that the police can prevent,” he said adding that it becomes a tragedy for the police to prosecute. The work of the police, he said, can only get easier if society’s behaviour improves along the way.

He emphasised that the biggest job the police have, is to restore the trust of the national community and to get them to understand that the police need their cooperation to carry out their duties.

“Without that the police work will become virtually impossible,” he said.