Fundamentals of workable crime plan

THE EDITOR: This letter deals almost exclusively with the punitive measures required to address our very unsatisfactory crime situation.

What I am hearing from all the relevant authorities and most other commentators is more of the same, with the expectation to get different results. Yes, there needs to be a more efficient application of the systems currently in place and that will bring some relief at the margin.

However, as an analogy, we will still be trying to clean the Brian Lara Promenade with a scrubbing brush when what is required is a power and/or pressure washer.

I am of the view that we need assistance from outside our jurisdiction to effectively combat our crime problem. There are countries, such as Singapore in the Commonwealth of Nations with a similar Westminster system of government, which have dealt effectively with their crime situations.

In this regard we should seek to establish an advisory committee comprising of eminent jurists and law enforcement officials from some of those jurisdictions (possibly a five-member panel) to undertake a comprehensive review of our existing laws and other measures/practices in our criminal justice system and make recommendations to the TT Government on the requirements for a much more effective system.

Such a review must examine, in detail, the operations of the TTPS, the Office of the DPP and the judiciary. Our legislative/administrative infrastructure would also have to be scrutinised.

This exercise, although necessary, will require approximately six months, possibly a year, to be completed. However, we would have a blueprint for moving forward.

In the interim, and without prejudice to what this high-powered committee might recommend, we can, among other things, adopt some important measures on our own.

Accordingly, all crimes related to the illegal importation and possession of guns and/or ammunition should carry a mandatory death sentence. Customs and law enforcement officials who are complicit in such crimes, including tipping-off perpetrators, should also receive the death penalty. Similarly, the death penalty should be mandatory for the importation and/or sale of illegal drugs such as cocaine. Kidnapping should be a death-penalty offence.

The laws should be amended to allow for the automatic tracking by way of electronic monitoring of people accused of death-penalty offences who are granted bail. Such monitoring should include any electronic devices to which they have access. CCTV and other electronic devices should be installed at their homes/business places.

The relevant laws should be amended to ensure all crimes that attract the death penalty are judicially determined within three years and, therefore, fall well within the five-year time frame required by Pratt and Morgan. The administrative and other legal infrastructure should support the completion of such matters within three years.

The CCTV initiative of the Government is admirable. However, some of these devices should be focused in even more abundance on hotspot locations in the country, including in neighbourhoods where suspected gang leaders/members reside and/or conduct their nefarious business, or frequent. A similar approach should be implemented with respect to suspected "drug blocks."

The police should have effective daily patrols/surveillance throughout the day and night in every district, including random stop-and-search measures, especially in hotspots, suspected drug blocks, and where suspected gang leaders/members reside and/or conduct their business, or frequent.

The declaration of a state of emergency should not be ruled out as an appropriate measure depending on the circumstances. We are, effectively, in a state of war as far as serious crimes are concerned.

As an interim measure, as far as white-collar crimes are concerned, the Government should provide the necessary funds for the TTPS and the Office of the DPP to secure the services of at least one eminent foreign expert on such matters to assist in their day-to-day operations.

The TTPS and the Office of the DPP should be required, by law, to periodically publish statistical data on the progress of such matters – in a manner that does not compromise the prosecution of alleged offenders – and give an indication of what may be hindering their timely completion, where there are significant delays.

LOUIS W WILLIAMS

St Augustine