RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Debe res­i­dents, grap­pling with a surge in home in­va­sions, rob­beries, and two ab­duc­tions, have wel­comed ad­di­tion­al po­lice pres­ence in their com­mu­ni­ty with the es­tab­lish­ment of a new mu­nic­i­pal head­quar­ters.

How­ev­er, mem­bers of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty said the new sta­tion was not suf­fi­cient in the crime fight, prompt­ing calls for at least 100 more of­fi­cers to be as­signed to their re­gion.

At the of­fi­cial open­ing of the $1.5 mil­lion re­fur­bished build­ing at Welling­ton Road, Debe, chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (PDRC) Gow­tam Ma­haraj said there were al­ready two gat­ed com­mu­ni­ties at Palmiste and Az­im Av­enue and there are re­quests for two more at Pe­nal Rock Road and McLean Street.

“We have re­ceived re­quests from McLean Street, and via a non-ob­jec­tion route, we have ap­proved that com­mu­ni­ty to be­come a gat­ed com­mu­ni­ty,” he said.

“We an­tic­i­pate an in­crease in re­quests for gat­ed com­mu­ni­ties be­cause it’s no se­cret that cit­i­zens are tak­ing mea­sures to keep them­selves safe from rogue el­e­ments. There­fore, the PDRC stands hand in hand with cit­i­zens to es­tab­lish more se­cure com­mu­ni­ties,

“We need at least 100 of­fi­cers for ef­fec­tive op­er­a­tion in shifts.”

Gow­tam added that with strength­ened man­pow­er, the mu­nic­i­pal po­lice could al­so as­sist farm­ers.

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Sur­ren­dra Sagram­s­ingh said the mu­nic­i­pal head­quar­ters would en­hance pa­trols across the re­gion.

In re­sponse to calls for more man­pow­er, he said there are on­go­ing re­cruit­ment ef­forts.

“We have pro­cured ad­di­tion­al ve­hi­cles and 292 in­di­vid­u­als are be­ing eval­u­at­ed and processed for en­list­ment in the mu­nic­i­pal po­lice, pos­si­bly adding 20 more of­fi­cers across the ten re­gions. We will sup­port the TTPS in their en­deav­ours.”

Se­nior Supt Wayne Mo­hammed urged busi­ness own­ers not to be­come easy tar­gets for crime, em­pha­sis­ing aware­ness of their sur­round­ings. He said while home in­va­sions have oc­curred, the in­creased of­fi­cer pres­ence should re­as­sure the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.

“Restor­ing trust and con­fi­dence be­tween the po­lice and the pub­lic is cru­cial,” he said.

How­ev­er, Ram­per­sad Sieu­raj, past pres­i­dent of the Pe­nal/Debe Cham­ber of Com­merce, ex­pressed scep­ti­cism.

“I’m un­sure if this sta­tion will ad­dress the on­go­ing sit­u­a­tion. De­spite po­lice and army pres­ence, the sit­u­a­tion re­mains chal­leng­ing. Though there might be a phys­i­cal pres­ence, it’s un­clear if they can de­ter home in­va­sions and rob­beries,” he said.

Sieu­raj said he hoped there would be more col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween mu­nic­i­pal po­lice and the TTPS to com­bat crime ef­fec­tive­ly.

Mean­while, res­i­dents ex­pressed fear about the es­ca­lat­ing crime in the area. Debe elec­tri­cian Shi­va Lochan went miss­ing on De­cem­ber 7 and is be­lieved to have been robbed and ab­duct­ed, while busi­ness­woman Christi­na Ad­sett dis­ap­peared from her home on Sep­tem­ber 11. Since these in­ci­dents, res­i­dents have been call­ing for more pa­trols in the re­gion.