JENSEN LA VENDE

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds yes­ter­day sought to as­sure the pub­lic that the po­lice, and, by ex­ten­sion his min­istry, are work­ing to ad­dress the crime sit­u­a­tion and there have been small suc­cess­es.

Yes­ter­day, the coun­try’s mur­der count stood at 596.

For the same pe­ri­od last year, it was 555.

At the end of 2022, the coun­try record­ed 601 mur­ders, the high­est in its his­to­ry.

Sev­er­al stake­hold­ers, in­clud­ing for­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith and crim­i­nol­o­gist Randy Seep­er­sad, had fore­cast that this year’s mur­der toll could again reach 600.

Speak­ing dur­ing a news con­fer­ence, Hinds was asked about the pub­lic dis­qui­et over mur­ders and kid­nap­pings.

He said there were some suc­cess­es.

“All of the agen­cies of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty col­lab­o­rate, and we are work­ing. I un­der­stand from what the sta­tis­tics are trend­ing to show that there (was a) de­tect­ed slow­down in the rate of mur­ders and, there­fore, we ap­pre­ci­ate that but the fig­ure is still high as it is.”

The Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter said he is aware of the com­mit­ment of the po­lice and the var­i­ous units to car­ry on that trend of a steady re­duc­tion in the rate of mur­ders.

“In so far as pub­lic dis­qui­et, I do un­der­stand how the pub­lic will feel, but all I can do as Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty is give the as­sur­ance that work is be­ing done in that re­gard.”

Hinds men­tioned the re­cent for­ma­tion of the An­ti-Ex­tor­tion Unit re­sult­ing in sev­er­al charges be­ing laid and two kid­nap vic­tims be­ing re­leased, as suc­cess­es of the po­lice. He said these showed that work was be­ing done in sup­press­ing crime.

“I’m see­ing el­e­ments of suc­cess, and it is en­cour­ag­ing.”