SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

The per­sis­tent crime wave in the Waller­field com­mu­ni­ty has now led the farm­ers to link up with a pri­vate com­mand cen­tre to help them de­tect and de­ter crim­i­nals. The perime­ter of the farm­ers' homes and farms will be mon­i­tored by pri­vate se­cu­ri­ty cam­eras with the help of a small com­pa­ny.

Last Wednes­day, the pres­i­dent of the Waller­field Farm­ers and Al­lied Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion, Lisa Perez, met with farm­ers who have been vic­tims of home in­va­sions, armed rob­beries, and prae­di­al lar­ce­ny to dis­cuss the crime-fight­ing ini­tia­tive. The re­cent spate of crime and mur­ders in the farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty, ac­cord­ing to Perez, has called for dras­tic ac­tion, and that is why she turned to CEO of iCon­sultTT Is­sa Bais­den for help with this new se­cu­ri­ty mea­sure.

In the last year, Perez said dozens of farm­ers were am­bushed, beat­en and robbed at gun­point in their homes while oth­ers have had their crops, farm­ing equip­ment and an­i­mals stolen un­der the cov­er of dark­ness.

The vast area, she said, has al­so seen an in­crease in mur­ders. In the last year, there were eight gun-re­lat­ed killings in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Last Wednes­day's dou­ble mur­der of "Red­do" Lewis and Sean Dalips­ingh at Block Three stemmed from the slaugh­ter­ing of a cow which sparked fur­ther un­ease in the dis­trict.

Fear­ful for their lives and un­der siege, many farm­ers have moved out of the agri­cul­tur­al food bas­ket. Those who have re­mained are trau­ma­tised and need to se­cure them­selves ur­gent­ly.

"The crim­i­nals are get­ting the up­per hand and the po­lice seem help­less," Perez claimed.

"Our coun­try is col­laps­ing. When will the law­less­ness end? We have to do some­thing to safe­guard our lives and liveli­hood."

She said the two CCTV cam­eras in­stalled in strate­gic lo­ca­tions in Waller­field have not been work­ing for months, and she be­lieves that the crim­i­nals are aware of that. "It's be­yond shame­less."

President of the Wallerfield Farmers and Allied Welfare Association Lisa Perez.

Abraham-Diaz

So­lar-pow­ered se­cu­ri­ty cam­eras to be in­stalled

Try­ing to bring some mea­sure of re­lief, Bais­den of­fered the in­stal­la­tion of so­lar-pow­ered se­cu­ri­ty cam­eras around their farms and homes which would trans­mit re­al-time video footage to a pri­vate com­mand cen­tre where as­sis­tance could be dis­patched dur­ing a rob­bery or home in­va­sion.

The com­mand cen­tre, mon­i­tored by op­er­a­tors, will be used as a cen­tral hub to feed in­for­ma­tion to a team of se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers pa­trolling the com­mu­ni­ty, so they can swift­ly re­spond to crimes be­ing com­mit­ted.

"Yes, we will work with the po­lice as well," Bais­den said.

The busi­ness­man said Waller­field was the first farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty to be of­fered this ser­vice.

"This is some­thing we want to be able to con­tin­ue as a larg­er project for mul­ti­ple farm­ing com­mu­ni­ties," he said.

For this year, Bais­den has in­stalled so­lar cam­eras for farm­ers in Las Lo­mas, Gas­par­il­lo, San­gre Chiq­ui­to and Waller­field.

"We have seen an uptick in the de­mand for so­lar se­cu­ri­ty cam­eras with­in the last few weeks by farm­ers due to ris­ing crime," Bais­den told the Sun­day Guardian.

In 2012, Bais­den left the farm­ing in­dus­try in Waller­field af­ter thieves cart­ed away his equip­ment.

A decade lat­er, he said, "the crime sit­u­a­tion has wors­ened. I know the plight of the farm­ers, hav­ing been a vic­tim my­self. They are not tak­en se­ri­ous­ly and peo­ple triv­i­alise their loss­es which are sig­nif­i­cant when you add the cost of chem­i­cals, in­puts and labour."

To in­stall one so­lar cam­era can cost $1,500 while the price of a so­lar-based sta­tion with three cam­eras erect­ed on a pole is be­tween $10,000 to $12,000.

In the past, Bais­den said lack of con­nec­tiv­i­ty hin­dered farm­ers in re­mote ar­eas from in­stalling se­cu­ri­ty cam­eras on their farms.

"As it stands, for T&TEC to erect an elec­tric­i­ty pole to the fur­thest point of a farmer's five-acre farm would cost $10,000. In some cas­es, a farmer may need more than one pole de­pend­ing on the size of their farm. Elec­tric­i­ty is need­ed for the cam­eras to work."

This ex­or­bi­tant cost, Bais­den said, pre­vent­ed farm­ers from in­stalling cam­eras who be­came sit­ting ducks.

Bais­den said for­tu­nate­ly tech­no­log­i­cal ad­vance­ments have en­abled him to use so­lar-pow­ered se­cu­ri­ty cam­eras there­by elim­i­nat­ing the need for elec­tric­i­ty poles.

The cost of the com­mand cen­tre's ser­vice, Bais­den said, will de­pend on the num­ber of farm­ers who buy in­to the pro­gramme.

"The more farm­ers we have on board the cost will go down. If we get more than 30 farm­ers who are in­ter­est­ed in the use of the com­mand cen­tre that will be a start. It will not be ex­pen­sive."

As an in­cen­tive, he said reg­is­tered farm­ers can get a re­bate up to a max­i­mum of $30,000 spent on se­cu­ri­ty sys­tems of­fered by the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture.

Pig farmer Wayne Bowen speaks about measures being put in place to to ease praedial larceny at his farm in Wallerfield.

ABRAHAM DIAZ

Farmer Bowen: We are de­scend­ing in­to an­ar­chy

On Tues­day, pig farmer Wayne Bowen, 70, who was beat­en mer­ci­less­ly, hog-tied, sprayed with in­sec­ti­cide and set on fire by three gun-tot­ing ban­dits who in­vad­ed his Cu­mu­to Road home in May this year, wel­comed Bais­den's ini­tia­tive.

The thieves stole $5,500 in cash and a gold chain from him.

Since the near-death ex­pe­ri­ence, Bowen has moved out of his home but con­tin­ues to rear his live­stock in the com­mu­ni­ty to eke out a liv­ing.

"I have gone past be­ing scared. I worked re­al­ly hard to build my farm and these peo­ple just run me out of my house. My wife is still trau­ma­tised by the in­ci­dent. I am still seek­ing coun­selling. How can I be com­fort­able? Every minute you have to be watch­ing over your shoul­der be­cause these pests are re­luc­tant to work and have been liv­ing off the sweat of law-abid­ing cit­i­zens."

Bowen said he would not mind pay­ing for the ser­vice to have some peace of mind in his twi­light years.

"It's worth a try be­cause the po­lice seem hope­less in bring­ing these law­break­ers to jus­tice."

Bowen said he has lost con­fi­dence in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) while the Prae­di­al Lar­ce­ny Squad (PLS) has been non-ex­is­tent.

"You would quick­er see the po­lice speed­ing on the high­way in marked ve­hi­cles than pa­trolling in here. Well, don't talk about the Prae­di­al Lar­ce­ny Squad they are in­vis­i­ble."

He said the coun­try was not pro­gress­ing but re­gress­ing.

The farmer said what has been tak­ing place in Waller­field is rob­bery with vi­o­lence.

"Any­where that mon­ey is be­ing cir­cu­lat­ed peo­ple will be tar­get­ed. We have not been get­ting pro­tec­tion from the po­lice. We are not seen as busi­ness peo­ple be­cause of what we do."

With Christ­mas ap­proach­ing, Bowen said, the rustlers will be on the prowl to make a fast buck.

He is brac­ing for a spate of rob­beries.

"So we are ex­pect­ing more crime and more mur­ders."

Bowen said he knows of an el­der­ly farmer in the com­mu­ni­ty who sees men bran­dish­ing guns in front of his home but is scared to re­port the mat­ter to the po­lice.

"Peo­ple are gen­er­al­ly liv­ing in fear be­cause the crim­i­nals are in con­trol. That is the re­al­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. We are de­scend­ing in­to an­ar­chy."

Farmer Buchan: The rob­beries have crip­pled me fi­nan­cial­ly

At Trac­tor Pool Road, 89-year-old Samuel Gus­ta­vo Buchan was robbed of live­stock val­ued at $25,000 a few weeks ago.

The rustlers en­tered the back of Buchan's home af­ter mid­night.

"This was my sec­ond rob­bery for the year," he ad­mit­ted.

"Those two rob­beries shake (sic) me. I am won­der­ing what will hap­pen next. Waller­field has turned in­to a war zone. It is no longer safe."

Buchan said the rob­beries have crip­pled him fi­nan­cial­ly, and he could no longer af­ford to main­tain his van.

"I used to dri­ve around in the van and cut grass for my an­i­mals. Now I have to use a wheel­bar­row. These crim­i­nals tak­ing every­thing you work­ing hard for."

Buchan said the farm was a fam­i­ly-owned busi­ness and that he would need to con­sult with his rel­a­tives be­fore in­vest­ing in cam­eras and pay­ing a month­ly sub­scrip­tion to have their premis­es and farm mon­i­tored.