Crime is an almost daily front page headliner leading to public demands for action by the Prime Minister. No one is immune from the effects of crime whether directly or indirectly. The direct impact can be quantified in lost lives and or property. The indirect impact is less measurable and perhaps more important. These effects include damage to the national psyche and a coarsening of the spirit which is burdensome and negatively impacts confidence in every respect.
The 2024 Budget speech promised more recruits to the TTPS, boots on the ground. Barely three months later in January 2024 during a political meeting in San Juan, the prime minister promised that the Government would do what it must to address crime.
He announced that $100 million would be provided to the T&T Defence Force to hire recruits, reserve and retired officers as a community initiative to fight criminal elements in some communities which he described as “nurseries for criminal conduct.” This announcement has not yet borne fruit.
Following the bloody weekend two weeks ago, the TTPS busied itself, with high visibility and roadblocks aplenty. The Prime Minister’s appointment of senior counsel Keith Scotland as an additional minister in the National Security Ministry is a belated acknowledgement that Minister Hinds needed help. Minister Scotland will take responsibility for policing, offender management, illegal immigrants, money laundering drug trafficking and drug enforcement. No doubt, Minister Scotland will also be a National Security Council member.
Citizens welcome any change that promises crime reduction. However, this appointment comes with only one year left in the life of this administration. This move can be viewed as a demonstrable sense of urgency. The cynical view is that it is an act of desperation, a plaster to boost confidence since nothing else has worked.
In the last 20 years, we have had a management expert, a businessman, three former military personnel, three attorneys and a diplomat in the National Security Ministry. Any reduction in the murder rate was short-term due in part to two states of emergency periods and COVID-19.
One must conclude there is no quick fix to reduce crime. Violent crime and murder matched the growth in national income. The fight to maintain lifestyles and income has sharpened the level of violence since economic growth has slowed. Reducing violent crime is a long and arduous task requiring collaboration and coordinated action on many fronts and amongst institutions and arms of the state.
The front line to fighting, detecting, reducing crime and dealing with offenders are all improvement projects that must be addressed if lasting change is to occur. This requires institutional change from within, like the criminal justice system and the TTPS for example.
Change in policies, laws, organisations, people, processes, and systems. Citizens also need to do their part. These changes require positive reinforcement through confidence-building measures and the continuous celebration of small wins. Leadership, management and clear strategic, operational and tactical responses at every level are critical to guiding this process.
These multi-year activities will take time even if they are well designed and well-implemented. To ensure continuity and the programmes remain in place should administrations change, the political parties must come to a common understanding.
As welcome as this appointment may be, there is a limit to what one man can achieve in the months before a general election campaign begins. Mr Scotland may be a good criminal lawyer, but he is not Scotland Yard. Supermen or personalities cannot save us. Only clear thinking, focused action and teamwork can.