The Confederation of Regional Business Chambers has called on National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds to step up in the fight against crime.
Speaking on CNC3’s the Morning Brew on Monday, the confederation’s president Vivek Charran said small and medium-sized businesses were under a slew of attacks from criminals.
He said unsophisticated criminals looking for an easy mark had been targeting these businesses, sometimes more than once.
“One of our members, in particular, has been pretty hard hit because it’s almost like every three weeks one of the branches of his fast-food restaurants are getting robbed,” Charran revealed.
He said the incidents have happened in Chaguanas and the business owner was contemplating closing some of the branches of his business because of the attacks.
Charran said criminals were also becoming more violent in their attacks.
“When criminals come into your business place it leads to death and killing. Now, when they coming to rob you, they does kill you one time and then search and take what they need to take. And the effects are huge, it’s not just the grief and the devastation and so on, the effects of what is the loss of leadership?
“What’s happening to the business after? What are the legal ramifications of all these things that are happening?” he asked.
Charran said he did not believe poverty had led to an increased crime rate. He said criminals have been choosing a life of crime over getting a job to earn an income.
“Therefore, how are they earning an income? They have to go there, rob people, they have to get cash if they want to buy shoes, if they want to buy clothes, if they want to go to a party, if they want to throw a party, if they want to go and do anything that they want to do, they need cash and the only way they know to get this cash is to go out and rob somebody and that is the opportunism of the crime,” he said.
Charran said small and medium businesses made easy targets, as they often had cash on hand from their sales. He said these opportunistic criminals were not targeting supplies or things that could be sold, as they were often not sophisticated enough to resell these items.
He said while there seemed to be a greater police presence on the nation’s streets, incidents where police intervened in active crime scenes were rare.
Charran said he wants citizens to be able to arm themselves with non-lethal weapons, like tasers and pepper spray, for self-defence.
But he said another important element in the fight against crime was addressing the lack of resources in police stations across the country.
He said in a recent conversation with an officer in the Eastern Division, he was told the police station did not have ink to print documents.
“Many of the police stations don’t have operating vehicles because a lot of the vehicles are in need of repair and we had spoken to the Police Commissioner at some time about a partnership, whereas the business and the police, where we can help them by giving them donations to fix vehicles. That is something that needs to be looked at so police could actually have resources,” he said.
Charran said the business community could also assist in purchasing CCTV cameras for surveillance. But he said in discussing “real” solutions, the National Security Minister must be involved.
“We can’t heap everything on the lap of the Commissioner of Police. I understand the portfolio of National Security may not always trickle down to what is the responsibility of the CoP, I understand about separating the Government from the police, I understand all of these things, but at this particular time, when we are looking for solutions…we would like to see the presence and the leadership of the Minister of National Security to come to the fore and come to the fore with solutions,” Charran said.