Erla's promise

WHEN TOP cop Erla Harewood-Christopher promised a reduction in murders by June, we welcomed this. The promise suggested a leader who was both ready to act and ready to account.

But June having come and gone and with murders trending up instead of down – TT has passed 300 – it is incumbent on the commissioner to return to the podium to provide, at the very least, an update or an explanation and to suggest a path forward.

We hold no brief for Ms Harewood-Christopher but we do think it important to note what she actually promised while appearing before a parliamentary committee in February.

“We’d expect to see a change in the murder rate short-term by June, and long-term by December,” she told MPs.

Expectations are expectations. And while this particular expectation has proven too great in relation to June, there is arguably still room to hold out hope for an improvement by December, especially given the broader terms of ongoing plans. It is for the top cop to say.

However, few will bother to wait for the end of the year. And they would be entitled to take that approach. One murder is one too many. The country is yearning for an improvement in this distressing situation. Progress cannot come fast enough.

With a local government election imminent, expect the usual massaging of statistics by politicians.

Meanwhile, though its top brass has remained largely silent on murders, the police nonetheless continue to remind us of their impressive rate of arrests, the recovery of firearms, and high-stakes operations which have yielded significant gains, such as the $234 million drug bust reported recently.

The truth is, however we interpret the terms of the commissioner’s promise, nobody expects her to solve the crime problem overnight, even when considering her long-standing pedigree.

Nor do we expect murders miraculously to go down overnight after April’s high-profile Caricom symposium convened by the government which aimed to get the region to apply the same standards as it would in a public health emergency. Crucially, though, that summit did see regional leaders unite in their call for the US to address the impact of its gun trade on the region.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s naming of Michael Ben’Ary as the first co-ordinator for Caribbean firearms prosecutions in the US Department of Justice last week in response to the leaders will take time to bear fruit as Mr Ben’Ary, who has experience with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, sets to work.

It may well be that Ms Harewood-Christopher has been stung into silence. But if the police service is to be defined by professionalism, excellence and integrity, she must cultivate higher standards, avoid needless public interactions with government and opposition politicians and report back to those she is meant to serve.