TT’s murder rate alarming

As we write this, there have been 73 killings in 77 days in Trinidad and Tobago. As you read this, it is likely that those figures are already out-of-date. Our murder rate, within the past three years, has reached world-class status - and not in a good way. This country’s average murder rate now stands at just under 20 per 100,000 citizens. There are only five countries with a higher murder rate: Russia (21 per 100,000), Brazil (26 per 100,000), Jamaica (32 per 100,000) and Colombia and South Africa (both over 50 per 100,000). And, contrary to those persons who argue that you are equally likely to be killed in a big city, the United States has a murder rate of 7 per 100,000, the United Kingdom just 2 per 100,000, and Canada a mere 1.8 per 100,000.

If we extrapolate from the rate of murders for this year so far, it appears that we are heading to a killing field of over 40 per 100,000. Not only that, but the police appear unable to solve the vast majority of these murders. If they are not unable, then they are unwilling. Either way, our country is in dire straits. The fact is, bandits and murderers now treat the police with complete contempt. And why shouldn’t they? Between 2000 and 2004, the rate of unsolved murders jumped from an unsatisfactory 43 percent to a whopping 80 percent. So we must ask: exactly what are the police doing to earn their money? Police Commissioner Trevor Paul has his own statistics, and it was only last year that he quoted some to show that robberies and other crimes, except murder, had fallen. But statistics are useless without context, and a survey by Professor Ramesh Deosaran suggests that as much as 66 percent of crimes, including robbery and rape, go unreported. If this is so, it means that citizens, like the criminals, have lost all respect for the police.

When the crime rate was lower, and the detection rates higher, the excuse used to be that the police lacked equipment. The most common complaint from citizens was that police would say they didn’t have vehicles to respond to reports. But, despite significantly expensive upgrades in equipment of all types, the crime situation has now gotten worse. We can only conclude that the core problem does not lie with the tools, but with the skills and attitude of those persons entrusted to enforce the law. It is obvious that police officers need to be better trained from the moment they enter the St James barracks. Yet National Security Minister Martin Joseph recently made the astonishing statement that controlling crime is the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies, not his Ministry. But it is the government which has the power to effect needed changes in the Police Service, such as raising the requirements for entry and appointing an independent body to investigate complaints against officers. The attitude of officers must be changed, particularly in respect to conscientiousness, manners, and obeying the law.

We take this angle because it is obvious that, unless the quality of the Police Service is improved, the crime rate will continue to spiral out of control. Minister Joseph, despite his apparent attempt to abdicate his responsibility, is right in one sense: that, on the ground, crime has to be contained by the law enforcement officers. But policy shapes action, and so far all the government’s much-touted crime plans have failed to yield results. We are therefore forced to conclude that drastic action against criminals cannot happen unless drastic action in respect to police officers happens first.