Police hope for 5% increase in public's trust, confidence

THE police is on a mission to improve the public trust and confidence in the next 31 months by five per cent.

Currently, public trust and confidence stands at eight per cent, according to the latest survey done by the Police Service Commission (PolSC) in 2022.

Acting Police Commissioner Junior Benjamin sees it as an important pillar in his 2025-2027 strategic plan.

On May 29, Benjamin was reported as saying the plan is being rolled out in four pillars: community partnership, organisational development, operational excellence and public safety.

He and other members of the executive launched the plan in Tobago.

Benjamin inherited leadership of the police service under awkward circumstances after then commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher was arrested at her office for questioning into the procurement of two military-grade sniper rifles for the country's elite spy agency, the Strategic Services Agency.

Harewood-Christopher, 62, retired at the end of her contract on May 14, after she was directed to go on leave by Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander, a former police officer who turned politician on the eve of the general election in April.

Under Harewood-Christopher's tenure, between 2022-2025, murders and violent crime reached an all time high with 605 murders in 2022, 577 murders in 2023 and 625 in 2024.

Public trust and confidence plummeted to eight per cent after former commissioner Gary Griffith demitted office in 2021.

According to media reports, public trust and confidence was at 14 per cent when Griffith, a former politician, was approved by the Rowley administration to lead the troubled police service.

In the three years, Griffith's leadership public trust and confidence rose to 59 per cent, reports stated.

Griffith's tenure ended in controversy after the merit list for his acting appointment as commissioner was withheld by the Office of the President from being forwarded to Parliament. Former prime minister Rowley would later concede that his decision to appoint Griffith was "his biggest mistake."

At a meeting hosted by the Tunapuna Police Station Community Council on May 28, at the El Dorado West Secondary School, Tunapuna, the audience got a glimpse of the strategic plan.

Insp Kirt White, who is now chairman of the Tunapuna Police Station Community Council, shared the police’s plan to increase public trust and confidence.

The meeting was held from 6 pm-9.10 pm.

'Body cameras are essential tools'

White, along with Sgt Michael Galera, Snr Supt Michael Pierre and president of the Tunapuna Police Station Community Council Neil Boodoosingh, engaged about 40 residents about issues being faced in the community.

White said other targets included a 15 per cent increase in the use of bodycams and a five per cent reduction in allegations against police officers. On May 27, at a press conference, police promised to investigate all incidents of police-involved killings but said footage from bodycams in these incidents would not be released to the public.

Although no officer currently face disciplinary action for not wearing body cams, in January, Police Complaints Authority director David West said police could face disciplinary action for not wearing bodycams during police-involved shootings/killings. Between January 1-March 19 this year, there were 15 police-involved shooting matters which left 21 people dead, a media report said.

On May 26 another police-involved shooting was reported with one dead and two hospitalised.

Last year, Harewood-Christopher said police were not following orders to wear bodycams while on duty.

But these were seen as essential to allegations of police misconduct particularly in relation to police-involved killings especially after the 2021 police-involved killing of three men in Second Caledonia, Morvant and subsequent matters.

Some days ago, Benjamin promised 3,000 more bodycams for police.

These and other tools were essential to the police achieving their targets, White said at the meeting.

It was the first one held since Carnival and the April 28 general election but they are usually held monthly and the council hopes to get back on track with these.

White said police realised community relations was an area that needed improvement because if the service was not trusted there would be difficulty in communications.

“The main outcomes would be to improve public trust and confidence, effective community engagement and strengthen stakeholder partnerships and enhance youth engagement.

“So it is a collaborative effort…,” he said.

Community engagement necessary

White said the station council was not a new thing and mirrored village councils of the past.

“We want to bring things streamline so that the police service could stay on its mandate.”

He also spoke to how quickly simple disagreements were escalating into more serious matters and this was why community engagement was needed now more than ever.

Crime was easier, back in the day, to solve as people were more responsible, he said.

“If there were one or two people in a community, everyone knew who the bandit was, who the children of the bandit was and they would carry out their own form of policing.

“It was easy so that when a situation got to the level of the police station, it signified that the community could not have handled it.”

He said now, however, very basic disputes were reaching police stations.

“It tells us that the basic everyday understanding, we have lost it, to some extent.”

The council hoped representatives from each community would attend meetings and then share the information with their members.

Boodoosingh said while administrative members had changed the community remained the same.

He worked under four commissioners, four ACPs (assistant commissioners of police), five different senior superintendents and White was the sixth inspector as the council’s president.

He, too, asked for wider community representation on the council.

Schools and churches were represented on the council but Tunapuna was a complex place and needed more representation from different communities and places of worship on the council.

“Every community should be represented on the council because it remains the same,” he added.

Confidence on the rise in Tunapuna

However, he praised the police saying that community confidence was on rise in Tunapuna thanks to the collaborative nature of the Eagle Eye project. The project was launched in 2024.

The project is a collaborative one between the Greater Tunapuna Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the council and is a network of over 700 cameras which aids in crime fighting in the area.

Boodoosingh said there were 700 cameras paid for by private citizens which were monitored by the police and this helped to rebuild the confidence in the service over the five year period.

He jokingly said Tunapuna had already surpassed the five per cent target.

Some residents spoke to the police’s targets.

Resident Camille Lowhar said she felt encouraged and inspired by what she was hearing.

The police had to find ways to help community rebuild problem-solving skills,

“The state of things, people are so overheated that the slightest thing sets them off. They have lost the problem-solving ability so that the littlest dispute, you grab a weapon and the thing escalates.”

Lowhar said TT did not just wake up and get here (the crime problem) but, rather, had been a slow deterioration.

“So it it is going to take time to fix it and change behaviour.”

Lowhar suggested tackling crime from every possible angle.

“I think there has to be a consistent approach, in terms of, going after all these areas, consistently, at the same time.

“If you focus too hard on building community and you have serious violent crimes because people have wants and needs and, whatever it is, and they don’t care about that, you’re not going to get the result that you need,” Lowhar said.

Former acting principal and vice principal of Hillview College Sharon Ramdeen praised the police for its work in the community.

She asked the police, however, to do more to assist with the flow of traffic on El Dorado Road.

“I am asking for all schools to have more professional policing and traffic wardens to make the process easier.”

Ramdeen also asked about safety for students.

She said she was aware that there are 3,000 gangs in TT two of the largest ones were outside Hillview College.