Murder – and fixing it

UNDERSTANDING the motivation behind acquiring an illegal gun, particularly in high-violence communities, is one of the first steps in addressing gun violence in those communities.

This is the view of criminal psychologist and criminologist Renée Cummings, responding to questions about the country’s murder toll.

As at yesterday evening, the murder toll stood at 167, compared to 174 for the corresponding period last year, and according to the police, the murder toll for the first quarter is the lowest in the past four years.

But speaking with the Express last week, president of the Police Social and Welfare Association, ASP Michael Seales said the numbers game ought not to be played.

The police were making “considerable strides,” he said. “However, this is not enough. The association will not ignore the rest of the month and the spikes that we have seen, especially over the Easter weekend, where 11 were killed.”

He added: “April is not even over, but the number of murders reported is already among the highest in that same four-year period.

“This is not being said in a disparaging manner, but rather to be used as a reality check for the entire organisation.” Playing a “numbers game,” he said, “would be counterproductive to restoring trust and confidence in the organisation.”

Can the police keep the numbers down?

Cummings, who specialises in homicide investigation and reduction, pointed out that their support systems, mainly the courts and the Forensic Science Centre, are “insufficient, understaffed, underfunded and unscientific.”

“When people view the criminal justice system as unresponsive and ill-equipped to ensure safety and security and resolve crime and violence, people are often left with no legal recourse; and the lack of legal avenues for addressing criminal victimisation often present a likely motivation for extralegal remedies. Such legal cynicism creates a cycle of violent retribution,” Cummings said, adding that there is a need for an organic solution tailor-made for TT, with the help of local resources, for curing a local problem.

One of the ways present Police Commissioner Gary Griffith and others before him have either used or promised to use to decrease murders and increase the detection rate was to use foreign agencies.

The now disbanded Special Anti-Crime Unit (SAUTT) was one of the tools used in the past to address gang violence and kidnappings. The unit, which included UK police officers and was regarded as the most elite police unit of its time, was dismantled in 2011.

Griffith has repeatedly said he will use the expertise of UK and US police to help mould the TTPS into a crime-fighting ensemble similar to the New York Police Department and London’s Metropolitan Police.

Asked about this plan, Cummings said: “Capacity-building and knowledge sharing are critical to the development of a professional police service. There’s much we could learn from collaborating with international agencies, particularly best practices and lessons learned.

“But there’s also a lot of local talent that should be utilised. Cultural relativity is critical in designing organic solutions to reduce crime and violence.”

Griffith, in his aim to rebrand the TTPS, has used the comparison to the NYPD, who went from being regarded as pigs to the city’s finest.

Cummings said this change happened over a period of chaotic events that forced the change through lawsuits that made the NYPD change.

Now, she said, “The rebranded NYPD model is about accountability, transparency, legitimacy and procedural justice.”

On Friday, during an interview on Power 102, Griffith reiterated his plans to make the police more accountable and therefore make their successes more measurable. This accountability begins with simply appearing in court and extends to tools such as body cameras and vehicle cameras.

While the TTPS is being made accountable, the training that is expected to come through the connection between Scotland Yard and the NYPD is hoped to reduce the murder toll and increase the detection rate. If plans go as he would like, Griffith will have a rebranded intelligence unit that will not operate in a “silo” but share intelligence with other policing units. The hope is that sharing information will improve the effectiveness of the country’s policing.

Cummings said when looking at murders an obvious pattern is the low detection rate. According to her statistics, from 2006 to 2016, the average detection rate was 19 per cent, while the average murder annually for that period was over 300. So she highlighted that one area that may need additional training is in solving murders, which remains the barometer by which a country’s safety is judged.

“There seems to be an analytic and systemic deficiency in understanding homicide, and a lack of an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to understanding the complex dynamics of criminal behaviour and the criminal mind,” Cummngs concluded. “The TTPS needs innovative strategies to improve police investigative and intelligence capabilities, increase deterrence and decrease impunity. The focus should be on the procurement of experts that could offer high-quality knowledge and creative approaches to reduce homicide.”

Cummings pointed out that the difference between the numbers of murders in Trinidad and those in Tobago arose from the strong community ties that Tobago has compared to Trinidad, though added the size and population of Tobago are also a factor. Cummings highlighted that close-knit communities are often more resilient against crime and violence because of high levels of social regulation and social control in those communities.

“The solution lies in understanding the ecological conditions that put a country at risk for killing on a mass scale, she argued.

“But are we prepared to do the work, the research, and design evidence-based interventions?”

She added that there is an urgent need for analytic expertise to help the TTPS solve murders.

“Local law enforcement suffers from linkage blindness – an investigative failure to recognise a pattern which links one crime with another crime in a series of cases through victimology, geographic region or area of events, the “signature” of the offender, similar modus operandi and a review of autopsy protocols.”

Griffith has repeatedly mentioned the infiltration by Venezuelans of local gangs, who thus become connected to the drug cartels in Latin America.

Asked about any signature killings that can be attributed to this newly found connection, Cummings said she has not, but questioned whether local police are prepared to deal with it.

“Has the TTPS done its due diligence? This situation didn’t happen overnight. How many officers are bilingual, truly understanding the idiosyncrasies of the various regions, the nuances of the language, hablando malandreado – gangland Spanish, términos de las pandillas – the real gang terms; the complexities and sophistication of gangland Venezuelan style? How many successful undercover operations that involved the infiltration of criminal enterprises have the TTPS executed in its history?”

Cummings added: “Police must actively and aggressively pursue each case to be solved, and not because it has been stereotypically deemed ‘gang-related’ means it is not worthy of a thorough investigation.

“There’s also a deficit in knowledge among law enforcement, about the aetiology of violence, the ecology of offending and the anatomy of homicide, and possibilities of its prevention.”