JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, May 16, 2025

We all must play our part

by

Guardian Media Limited
723 days ago
20230524

For­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams' call for more com­mu­ni­ty watch groups to as­sist the po­lice in fight­ing crime is with­out doubt one that bodes well for all of T&T if tak­en se­ri­ous­ly.

The mer­it of such a call can­not be un­der­stat­ed. With more com­mit­ted eyes and ears, the sur­veil­lance to spot po­ten­tial crimes and avert crim­i­nals is height­ened.

Po­lice, we know, sim­ply can­not be every­where, every time.

The use of com­mu­ni­ty mon­i­tor­ing and re­port­ing mech­a­nisms through tech­nol­o­gy, so­cial and on­line com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and ac­tive look­outs have al­ways aid­ed the process and ought to be en­cour­aged, as for­mer com­mis­sion­er Williams has done.

The for­ma­tion of com­mu­ni­ty watch groups al­so leads to so­cial co­he­sion with­in com­mu­ni­ties with more far-reach­ing ben­e­fits.

Bond­ed by pur­pose, com­mu­ni­ties then turn in­ward to ex­am­ine the so­cial con­di­tions present among them that can fer­tilise or sus­tain crime and delin­quen­cy and seek to elim­i­nate them.

This may in­clude mon­i­tor­ing com­mu­ni­ty youth ac­tiv­i­ties to guard against the slight­est di­ver­gences from law­ful prac­tices; coun­selling and ar­bi­tra­tion among neigh­bours to main­tain peace and har­mo­ny; and the de­vel­op­ment of sport and com­mu­ni­ty-bond­ing pro­grammes.

Such ap­proach­es put more em­pha­sis on com­mu­ni­ty ef­forts in con­trast to for­mal crime pre­ven­tion by law en­force­ment agen­cies, cre­at­ing fortress­es borne out of the com­mon goal to pro­tect self and neigh­bour­hood.

How­ev­er, they must be cou­pled with stronger re­sponse times by po­lice and more proac­tive pa­trols.

No amount of ear­ly sur­veil­lance through prop­er­ly func­tion­ing watch groups can be of ben­e­fit if calls to the po­lice are not met with quick re­spons­es.

This re­quires a rapid-re­sponse pol­i­cy that in­cludes an achiev­able and en­force­able times­pan be­tween re­ceipt of a dis­tress call and ar­rival at the scene, con­tin­gent on an ap­pro­pri­ate work­ing fleet of ve­hi­cles in each polic­ing di­vi­sion.

In this re­gard, we ful­ly ap­pre­ci­ate Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher's plea for more work­ing ve­hi­cles.

The Com­mis­sion­er told a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee of Par­lia­ment last Thurs­day that she was not hap­py with the main­te­nance pro­gramme for the cur­rent fleet, not­ing that the Po­lice Ser­vice on­ly has 1,300 func­tion­ing ve­hi­cles when, ide­al­ly, they need 2,000.

She al­so told the JSC that the TTPS has made rep­re­sen­ta­tion for an­oth­er 500 new ve­hi­cles and that Par­lia­ment re­cent­ly ap­proved a fur­ther $100 mil­lion to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty for the pur­chase of new ones.

The soon­er they can ar­rive the bet­ter since these short­falls threat­en to de­rail the very best po­lice-civ­il part­ner­ships.

As seen re­cent­ly by home in­va­sions in West­moor­ings and Vic­to­ria Gar­dens, crim­i­nals are in­fil­trat­ing some of the more tight­ly knit, gat­ed, and pro­tect­ed neigh­bour­hoods where strong com­mu­ni­ty watch groups al­ready ex­ist.

The re­sponse has to be a more de­ter­mined ap­proach by both sides to en­sure that all cracks are closed.

While we sup­port Mr Williams' call, the TTPS must un­der­stand the val­ue of in­spir­ing con­fi­dence with­in com­mu­ni­ties that the po­lice are ef­fec­tive part­ners by en­sur­ing prop­er re­sponse times to dis­tress calls.

As the adage goes, it's go­ing to take two hands to clap.

Editorial


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored