The re­cent up­surge in mur­ders both in Trinidad and To­ba­go is a re­minder that the task ahead is not an easy one, even with the re­struc­tur­ing of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to share re­spon­si­bil­i­ties be­tween Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds and Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land.

Scot­land, hav­ing been hand­ed the op­er­a­tions of the Po­lice Ser­vice as part of his port­fo­lio, would know by now that his tenure will not be judged by much oth­er than the state of homi­cides. As it stands to­day, we are no more as­sured of the di­rec­tion in which we are head­ing, than be­fore his ap­point­ment. Scot­land, un­der­stand­ably, will need time to prove him­self. He must re­main con­scious, though, that time is not a lux­u­ry we can af­ford, and with the sit­u­a­tion be­ing as it is, there is no hon­ey­moon pe­ri­od.

This week has al­ready seen an es­ca­la­tion in killings, and sad­ly, the once idyl­lic To­ba­go is again in the news for the wrong rea­sons. The is­land, cov­er­ing 119 square miles with a pop­u­la­tion of around 60,000, is earn­ing a du­bi­ous rep­u­ta­tion as a minia­ture re­flec­tion of Trinidad’s alarm­ing mur­der rate.

To­ba­go has record­ed 19 mur­ders so far this year, com­pared to 14 in 2023. Those 14 mur­ders last year rep­re­sent­ed just two per cent of the 577 homi­cides in T&T. In com­par­i­son, the 19 mur­ders in To­ba­go so far this year out of the 357 reg­is­tered across the en­tire coun­try mean To­ba­go now ac­counts for 5.3 per cent of the na­tion­al mur­der rate at this point.

The tough re­spons­es we have been promised are not be­ing de­liv­ered. Cries by the pub­lic for ur­gent im­prove­ment are too of­ten seen by those in au­thor­i­ty as un­fair crit­i­cism in­stead of gen­uine pleas for a so­lu­tion.

The coun­try is still wait­ing on Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher to ful­fil the promise to trans­fer po­lice of­fi­cers from Trinidad to To­ba­go af­ter iden­ti­fy­ing that the fa­mil­iar­i­ties that To­ba­go of­fi­cers have with res­i­dents there are ham­per­ing the type of crack­downs nec­es­sary to con­trol the sit­u­a­tion.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s promise in Jan­u­ary to di­rect the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance to al­lo­cate $100 mil­lion to the T&T De­fence Force (TTDF) to ad­dress com­mu­ni­ties across T&T where de­vel­op­ment is stymied by crime re­mains out­stand­ing.

These mea­sures alone will not curb the mur­der rate, but the long de­lays in im­ple­men­ta­tion re­mind us that even when we iden­ti­fy crime-fight­ing pri­or­i­ties, we can­not ad­dress them ex­pe­di­tious­ly. But the au­thor­i­ties can­not do it alone. Po­lice need buy-in from the pub­lic, who act as ad­di­tion­al eyes and ears.

Re­ports fol­low­ing the re­cent shoot­ing death of a man in Scar­bor­ough in­di­cat­ed that, al­though he had been shot and wound­ed not long be­fore, he did not co­op­er­ate with po­lice in their at­tempt to find the per­pe­tra­tors. Po­lice be­lieve the same men he re­fused to iden­ti­fy were the ones who re­turned and took his life.

Last week, the be­hav­iour of in­di­vid­u­als in To­ba­go to­wards li­cens­ing of­fi­cers was de­plorable and shame­ful. Law-abid­ing cit­i­zens should not have any is­sue with ac­tions tak­en by a state au­thor­i­ty re­spon­si­ble for up­hold­ing the law, re­gard­less of where they are op­er­at­ing.

This back­ward and my­opic per­spec­tive that Trinidad li­cens­ing of­fi­cers should not op­er­ate in To­ba­go on­ly per­pet­u­ates the law­less­ness of those who be­lieve their tint­ed ve­hi­cles should not be touched.

We must not dis­re­gard the en­force­ment of mi­nor laws, as they pro­vide the breed­ing grounds for more se­ri­ous crimes. We ought to be re­mind­ed that evil thrives when good men do noth­ing. We can­not have it both ways.