JENSEN LA VENDE

The ex­ec­u­tive of the po­lice ser­vice is as­sur­ing that all is be­ing done to ad­dress crime even as the mur­der count climbs over 500 and a pre­dic­tion that the toll could sur­pass 650.

Dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing yes­ter­day, DCP Ju­nior Ben­jamin said the po­lice ser­vice is op­er­at­ing on an ev­i­dence-based sys­tem.

“The TTPS con­tin­ues to un­der­stand that to deal with crime we must al­low the sci­ence. It is about ev­i­dence-based, in­tel­li­gence-led, tech­nol­o­gy-dri­ven so­lu­tions. We are say­ing that we are very con­cerned. We are con­cerned be­cause of the num­bers; how­ev­er, we are not de­terred,” he said.

Ben­jamin added that the po­lice of­fi­cers have fol­lowed these steps and will con­tin­ue to do so which will re­sult in the re­duc­tion of the mur­der fig­ure. In 2022 the coun­try record­ed its high­est mur­der toll of 605.

Al­so present at the me­dia brief­ing were ACPs Curt Si­mon and Richard Smith. Asked why Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher was ab­sent, giv­en the se­ri­ous­ness of the mat­ter, Ben­jamin said she was at a meet­ing.

Re­call­ing the pur­pose of the brief­ing, which was to re­it­er­ate the ban on tac­ti­cal wear for some of­fi­cers, Ben­jamin said the top cop showed “de­ci­sive lead­er­ship” in tak­ing the ac­tion.

“Our Com­mis­sion­er is one who is a de­ci­sive leader. This de­ci­sion is a very strong de­ci­sion be­cause it is telling your task force to go in grey and blue and that can have some se­ri­ous ef­fect. The lives of our cit­i­zens are at stake and the Com­mis­sion­er has tak­en a stand that the po­lice ser­vice must re­spond and re­spond de­ci­sive­ly in mak­ing the nec­es­sary ad­just­ments.”

He added that de­spite her ab­sence, Hare­wood-Christo­pher should be com­mend­ed for putting the coun­try first and giv­ing yeo­man lead­er­ship to the TTPS.

Asked about the ap­par­ent rise in kid­nap­pings for ran­som, Si­mon said that is not so as the num­ber of re­ports last year matched this year for the same pe­ri­od. Last year there were three re­ports ac­cord­ing to the po­lice sta­tis­tics, while there have been five to date this year. In 2002 there were two re­ports and one each in 2020 and 2021.

“We are al­ways con­cerned in the kid­nap­ping of per­sons. It is a trau­mat­ic ex­pe­ri­ence for one to have. We are re­al­ly in­tent, in any kid­nap­ping in bring­ing back that per­son alive. We are in­tent on mak­ing an ar­rest, de­tect­ing the of­fend­ers and bring­ing them to jus­tice.”

The is­sue of kid­nap­ping for ran­som arose af­ter men dressed as po­lice kid­napped busi­ness­man Su­vesh Ram­nar­ine last Sat­ur­day. The 33-year-old busi­ness­man was ab­duct­ed from Rob’s Bar in Cunu­pia by five men dressed in po­lice tac­ti­cal wear. A $3 mil­lion ran­som has been de­mand­ed for his safe re­turn.

Po­lice said yes­ter­day that the mat­ter is still at a sen­si­tive stage and could not di­vulge more about it.