Yes, arm women with pepper spray

THE EDITOR: I fully support Police Commissioner Gary Griffith’s proposal for pepper spray to be legally carried and used by women in distress or dangerous situations.

I would even go further and suggest the police consider other personal protection devices such as low-charge tasers and screeching alarms that would temporarily immobilise or distract attackers, as well as attract attention.

TT began experiencing a crime spike in every category between 2000 and 2004, which has since worsened to crisis levels. Many crime victims lost their lives, and the ones who recovered, many women and children, still live with the terrifying memory.

Since the commissioner’s proposal, I have researched the crime levels over the last two years and noted that our police have a unit that uses tasers, sprays and perhaps other devices in the fight against crime.

This should mean that we have at least two years of data to gauge whether there is a chance that devices can be modified to ensure they are completely fit for purpose and cannot, as with everything, be used inappropriately.

The facts show that since the advent of this unit, crime has abated at a remarkable level.

I found that in the periods January-August 2019 and January-August 2020 there was a 35 per cent decrease in total violent crimes, a 22 per cent decrease in murders and a 33 per cent decrease in shootings and woundings.

Of importance in relation to the commissioner’s call is the fact that “rape, incest and other sexual offences” and “serious indecency” fell by 38 and 37 per cent, respectively.

With such progress being made, the commissioner is completely correct in pushing further with measures to ensure that criminal activities do not again spike.

With people being able to carry around legal, personal protection devices, we could find that criminals will think twice about committing crime.

It will provide women and young people in particular with a measure of confidence that even if they have a scary incident with a would-be attacker, they stand a good chance of disabling the person and retreating to safety.

More than that, reducing crime is a shared responsibility. We depend on the police to protect and serve, but the police must be able to depend on us citizen to not turn a blind eye to theft, abuse, violence and other illicit activities. More importantly, the police must be able to depend on citizens to support appropriate new measures to restore the kind of safety we all want.

If I may suggest, perhaps a law should considered to make it a legal requirement to register the purchase of every personal protection device, at which time a form of licence is issued and carried on the person at all times.

A similar arrangement obtains with the purchase of mobile phones. We must use official identification because it is a communication device, a requirement when terrorism increased.

Tasers and sprays are effectively anti-crime devices and should also be registered to ensure good accounting for their distribution and use.

In whatever way the law is drafted, I think the legal use of personal protection devices, sprays in particular, is a welcome proposal from the police, which I hope is not only met with favour, but also expeditiously implemented.

KIENCE JOSEPH

via e-mail