Call to encourage neighbourhood watch groups

Communities need to be the eyes and ears for the police because the police cannot fight crime alone. Executive director of Community Defence Services Limited Darrin Carmichael said at the end of the day communities were the eyes and the ears for law enforcement.

“By training these eyes and ears to be more effective by how they gather information, how they promulgate that among themselves and among the community is vital to the police in terms of helping to make a dent. They can’t do it alone. We are in fact the majority so it is really up to us to put hearts and minds behind this to make sure it works,” Carmichael said.

Community Defence has tied in with neighbourhood watch groups and works with Community Police throughout Trinidad and Tobago attempting to make neighbourhoods safe havens for residents.

“The police are a small number compared to the size of some of these communities, so what we try to do all over the country is community defence has being going around and working hand in hand in hand with the police.

“We have been working hand in hand with the police and helping form, or in some cases, revitalise some of the watch groups that have been in existence for years, but for some reason have fallen by the wayside. We go in, revitalise the group, get new blood pumped into it, managing it. Community Defence acts as a support for all the communities throughout the country,” he said.

Carmichael said community defence tied in with the neighbourhood watch with citizens recognising they could play a part in assisting the police in the fight against crime. He said neighbourhood watch was a tool that has been around for a long time where communities helped build a spirit of community, and brought people together in a very positive way.

He also said Community Defence was partnering with a telecommunications company that would bring even more value to the communities in terms of using the internet and data to be more effective in how they communicated and how they viewed electronic security equipment.

Carmichael said within the last year they have tried to introduce the programme to as many as 100 communities.