Timely and sobering advice from Rowley

The truth of the matter is that the Prime Minister’s advice is quite timely and sobering.

We have to switch our focus from the ancient art of crime detection to now focus on more strategic and meaningful approaches to crime. Rowley has demonstrated his metal once again by now leading the discussion of crime prevention as opposed to crime detection.

It is no secret that our crime detection rate is below ten percent and therefore maintaining focus on catching criminals may not yield the substantive results our society is looking to achieve at this time.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was able to reduce crime and criminal activity by strengthening the city’s crime prevention initiatives.

Giuliani put police officers on the streets within a two-minute response time of each other, engaged in various community outreach activities, and got people involved in policing.

Rowley’s advice to the women of this country to choose their men more wisely will not, if adhered to, stop such senseless murders as the recent Jamilia Derevenax or Asami Nagakiya but will surely help reduce such acts.

Crime requires a multifaceted approach and the Prime Minister has switched the focus by highlighting another approach to reducing crime and making citizens feel safer.

A politician tells people what they want to hear so people expected to hear that the Government and Police Service will do everything in their power to catch the criminals.

While that is nice to say, the job of a leader is to say what people need to hear. We need to make wiser decisions to prevent or avoid such occurrences.

To move forward we have to change the conversation, which is what the Prime Minister is doing with these events. We cannot keep the same rhetoric and expect different results.

The drive to launch a crime prevention campaign is an initiative that all sectors should support if we are truly interested in working towards making our communities safe.

History will surely record Rowley’s strong leadership and commitment to doing what it takes in the best interest of TT .

Ronald Huggins St Joseph