CoP boasts of '300 per cent' decline in Tobago murders

POLICE Commissioner Allister Guevarro says there has been a 300 per cent decline in homicides in Tobago.

“All last year, at this time, Tobago had 24 or 25 homicides. This year, it’s six. And of the six, four of them have been solved already. That is a 300 decrease in homicides in Tobago,” he said on the Tobago Updates morning show on October 10 during his first official visit.

Guevarro credited Tobago commanders ACP Oswain Subero, head of the division, Snr Supt Earl Elie and other senior officers for implementing an all of Tobago approach to leadership.

However, he urged Tobagonians to avoid being soft targets for criminals, noting that crime-fighting is a collective responsibility.

“We want community partnership. We want that ability to communicate with the public,” he said.

In relation to the ongoing state of emergency, Guevarro also revealed that the police are actively hunting suspects under the cover of preventative detention powers to curb instructions being issued from prisoners behind bars.

“We have executed about 79 preventative detention orders. We have about 46 or 47 still outstanding to be executed. So there are persons out there we still looking for. We are not taking it lightly, we are still actively hunting them.”

He also described the school-oriented policing initiative, which was introduced at high-risk schools in September, as phenomenal.

Guevarro said the soft touch approach, which involves officers fixing ties and playing games with students, has had a positive impact in tackling violence in schools.

“We now seeing police officers playing badminton with them in the school, lecturing to them, fixing their ties. So we see that softer approach to policing now being realised.”

During his visit, Guevarro met with THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine to discuss crime-fighting and security strategies on the island.

Parliament approved Guevarro’s nomination on June 13 with unanimous support from both Government and Opposition MPs.

He was officially appointed police commissioner on June 18.