Criminologist and former chairman of the Police Service Commission Professor Ramesh Deosaran says the increasing challenges facing the police service now require four important things:
1. A quick appointment of a police commissioner by the Police Service Commission
2. Strong and sustainable support by the rank and file of all police officers to the leadership
3. Law enforcement policies and operations that must be driven by research and ground-level intelligence, and
4. Making each police station properly equipped and organised to respond quickly and initially to the variety of crime reports, such as praedial larceny, domestic violence, trafficking in drugs, guns and abuse to robberies and murders - crimes which continue to worry citizens. As far as practical, each police station should be a one-stop service centre for the community it serves.
Deosaran was speaking at a donation ceremony at Police Headquarters, Port-of-Spain where he donated 150 copies of his three new books on crime, education and race relations to the police, prisons, coast guard, regiment, and teachers.
According to Deosaran, the police are further burdened by the "regrettable amount of hatred, spite and victimisation now prevalent in the society so much so that the consequences flowing from these criminogenic relationships fall upon the shoulders of the police."
He added, “a most outstanding example of gang production, as our research has found, comes from the many young men who either fail or drop out from our secondary schools.”
What all this means, Deosaran said, is that the other educational, social and community development institutions of government have to develop and enforce a range of delinquency and crime prevention strategies before matters reach the police.
These actions, he said, will not only build confidence in the state institutions but also help the police benefit from such partnerships and focus more sharply on its law enforcement and detection mandate.
Deputy Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob, who also spoke at the event, expressed thanks for the books and advised that research such as that contained in the books are vital for police policies, building intelligence and operations.