I am pleased that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) is pleased with their “100 per cent” rise in detection rate for murders.
According to Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Investigations McDonald Jacob, “In the first four and a half months for 2020, we had solved 20 murders but from middle of May to date we have solved 21 murders, showing a 100 per cent improvement in our detection rate.”
The other side of that ‘glossy’ statistic is not so rosy however. For years the murder detection/solve rate has been less than ten per cent. No lie. I have been monitoring this since 2007.
Typically, the ‘solve rate’ hovers between 4 per cent and 6 per cent.
This year, theTTPS has risen to heights hitherto unseen, by reaching a whopping 20 per cent solve rate.
Of course, that included the domestic cases where the perpetrators are usually known/caught at the scene/or surrender.
Looking at the bigger picture, there are some 252 murders to date, meaning the police only solved 16 per cent. Now, remember that this is by police standards…Which is not very high apparently, since the conviction rate—which comes after the arrest and prosecution—is a mere one per cent of the ‘solve rate’ quoted by TTPS. Has that sunk in yet?
In other words, the police standard of evidence and detection is so low that a court finds it reliable only one per cent of the time!
In the Latin Americas and Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago ranks fourth in number of homicides per 100,000 citizens—37.4.
We are only surpassed by Venezuela, Jamaica and Honduras. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/947781/homicide-rates-latinamerica-caribbean-country/]
I am pleased that TTPS is pleased. I am NOT pleased they are so easily pleased.