RHON­DOR DOWLAT

To ef­fec­tive­ly en­gage in crime fight­ing more fo­cus needs to be put on the youths through­out T&T. There must al­so be prop­er fund­ing for Po­lice Youth Clubs (PYC) as they are al­ready mak­ing an im­pact in com­mu­ni­ties.

This is the view of Sgt James Beck­les of the Com­mu­ni­ty Ori­ent­ed Po­lice Sec­tion, River­side Plaza, Besson Street, Port-of-Spain. Beck­les was speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at the T&T Po­lice Youth Club’s Foot­ball Fi­nals which took place at the CIC Grounds.

The foot­ball com­pe­ti­tion is among sev­er­al ac­tiv­i­ties aimed at crime pre­ven­tion. The oth­er sports in­clude bas­ket­ball, net­ball, and hock­ey.

Beck­les said that most of the youths in­volved in the clubs are those that come from sin­gle-par­ent homes and those who do not do so well in school and are said to be left be­hind by the sys­tem. He said the youths al­so need at­ten­tion, guid­ance, and dis­ci­pline.

“The ac­tiv­i­ties in the po­lice youth clubs keep them oc­cu­pied and we try to add a lit­tle more in terms of dis­ci­pline and their up­bring­ing be­cause some of their par­ents are not able to give them the up­bring­ing and dis­ci­pline, so when they are sent to join the youth clubs we have to in­stil in them these things be­cause the po­lice are as­so­ci­at­ed with dis­ci­pline,” Beck­les said.

“Al­so a par­ent who can­not con­tain their child or chil­dren at home would send them to the po­lice youth clubs to get dis­ci­plined. These chil­dren al­so need at­ten­tion as many of them come from sin­gle-par­ent homes.”

Beck­les said more needs to be done for the PYC­sand sug­gest­ed that an an­nu­al sub­ven­tion of $20,000 to $30,000 be giv­en to lead­ers of these youth clubs.

“Most times the of­fi­cers fund projects from their own pock­ets, from their own bud­get. The youth clubs would al­so have fundrais­ers and we would have to de­pend on cor­po­rate spon­sors. If we have big­ger projects we may get fi­nanc­ing from the com­mis­sion­er’s of­fice but we need spon­sors and to be bud­get­ed.”

Beck­les al­so called for the con­struc­tion of club­hous­es in each com­mu­ni­ty that would give a lit­tle more pri­va­cy to the chil­dren.

“We have 98 Po­lice Youth Clubs and if we have 20 club­hous­es we have plen­ty. They need to go some­where where they can con­gre­gate and learn where there are few­er dis­trac­tions. For ex­am­ple, in malls away there are com­mu­ni­ty po­lice of­fices and even in com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres, so if we can do the same here that would be a plus.”

Beck­les said po­lice of­fi­cers should be placed in all com­mu­ni­ties dai­ly and not on­ly when some­thing hap­pens. “Po­lice of­fi­cers would be more af­flu­ent in the com­mu­ni­ties. We have gang lead­ers, and drug lead­ers who are af­flu­ent so why not have the po­lice in these com­mu­ni­ties too? If they are in day in, day out they would have a big­ger im­pact than guns. We need some­thing more con­stant

PC Mar­vin Small, leader of the Bev­er­ly Hills Block 8 Po­lice Youth Club al­so shared sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments as Beck­les but added that peer pres­sure is a ma­jor chal­lenge. He said he, how­ev­er, be­lieves that if giv­en a chance to build on their re­spec­tive tal­ents it would help.

“Some of them fall to peer pres­sure like smok­ing, lim­ing, and gam­bling and they are be­ing led along the wrong path but we need to bridge the gap with the youths and the com­mu­ni­ty. So, we as po­lice of­fi­cers go in­to the com­mu­ni­ties and ask what can be done, what they want, and how they think we can help whether it’s through sports, ed­u­ca­tion, or cul­tur­al.

“Fund­ing is an is­sue as most of these par­ents do not have good jobs and they strug­gle, but we need to find ways to make things hap­pen, to do our best. I would like peo­ple to come and see the good work that we are do­ing in the Bev­er­ly Hills area and let them be the judge, see how we can build on what they want and in­vest in them.”