With Trinidad and Tobago’s murder rate spiralling once again following a bloody start to 2023 in which over 100 people have already met their demise, Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher is promising an end to the bloodletting.
Harewood-Christopher made the comment during the second session of a Joint Select Committee called to gain an understanding of the anti-crime strategies being utilised by the T&T Police Service to address criminal activity in Trinidad and Tobago.
During the session, JSC member Jayanti Lutchmedial questioned, “What sort of timeline do you have in mind for these strategies to start producing results, because at the rate we going, if we continue along that trajectory, we could be looking at maybe a thousand.”
However, the top cop said by the next three months, there could be some positive outcome.
“We will expect to see a change in the murder rate short-term by June and long-term by December,” Harewood-Christopher told the JSC.
Harewood-Christopher’s appearance was her first since becoming Commissioner and came weeks after she was criticised by JSC members for her no-show at the first session.
During the session, she took the opportunity to apologise for her absence then.
“I appreciate the disappointment that was caused by my absence and I am here today and I hope to present myself well,” she said.
Harewood-Christopher said among the areas to be zeroed in on to reduce the crime rate was gang activity.
She assured that in pushing back gang activities, every effort will be made to achieve a reduction in murders by June.
“We’re going to conduct extensive data mining on gangs, including seizure, locations, criminal modus operandi and profiling of members and associates. We’re going to be targeting the prolific offenders, the gang members with outstanding warrants, the drug dealers and other notorious persons,” she said.
JSC member Ayanna Webster-Roy asked the CoP whether or not she thought there were weaknesses with state agencies that may be likely to facilitate the prevalence of illegal firearms.
Harewood-Christopher said discussions with various arms of national security had been ongoing to ensure a measure of control.
However, acting DCP of Intelligence and Investigations Curt Simon added that certain state agencies were on the TTPS’ radar.
“Illegal firearms, of course, is a concern for us. Some of our biggest hauls would have come through the ports and even our airports, that would suggest that persons who are associated with these agencies may be complicit somewhat in assisting lawbreakers, so we call them facilitators and in embarking on our investigations in that arrangement, because we have launched a probe into that flow, that investigation involves our friends from the US Embassy, the ATF and even the FBI and drug enforcement people.”
The Police Commissioner said TTPS officials were in the process of revising the violent crime reduction strategies and it will be made available in the coming weeks.
“What I’ll be focusing on is precision policing using intelligence, prevention, pro-action and prosecution. When I say precision policing, it is policing of the few persons responsible for the criminal activities. I’d be focusing on dismantling gangs, the seizing of firearms, eradication of drug blocks, increasing the focus on transnational crime, averaging the available technology to enhance police operations, enhancing police intelligence capability, building police legitimacy, increasing police presence, improving movement on roadways, increasing detection and prosecution of violent offenders, improving management of police operations and a zero tolerance on police ill-discipline and corruption.”
Harewood-Christopher said the TTPS also planned to acquire 400 more body cameras over the next three months for officers to use in the field.
Meanwhile, also addressing gang activity, acting DCP Simon said preliminary figures suggested there were 104 gangs operating across the country.
“We have extended our gang units and our ability to collate and receive this intel by incorporating functioning gang units with the SIU and now you find us setting up digital platforms for this connectivity to be reached between the divisional gang units and our main SIU unit, which is under the Criminal Investigations Bureau.
‘We expect the officers, when properly trained, would be able to deal with, in a much more decisive way, gangs in their districts.”
He also said the theft of nearly 6,000 vehicles between 2017 and 2022 had prompted the TTPS to widen its approach to dealing with the matter. He said given that just over 1,300 vehicles have since been recovered, there was cause for concern, adding investigations into what can be considered an illegal business ring are ongoing.
“What we are doing now is very promising and the potential is to actually shut down the whole business model of the larceny motor vehicle enterprise and we are employing a number of tools. More particularly, we have brought in our Financial Investigations Bureau into the set, so there is a combination of investigators and agencies.”
Harewood-Christopher assured the JSC members police officers had the capacity and the capability of achieving all its mandates.