PDP head on Tobago security meeting: Big on optics, short on outcomes

PROGRESSIVE Democratic Patriots (PDP) political leader Watson Duke says the National Security Council meeting held in Tobago on July 9 was big on optics but short on outcomes.

The Prime Minister, chair of the council, presided over the meeting, which was held at the Central Administrative Services – Tobago, in Scarborough.

It came in the wake of four murders in the village of Black Rock, which pushed the island’s murder toll for 2024 to 16. Tobago had 14 murders in 2023.

Among those attending were National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher, other members of the Police Service’s executive, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, head of the Tobago Division, ACP Collis Hazel, Snr Supt Rodhill Kirk and THA Minority councillor Petal Daniel-Benoit.

Harewood-Christopher told a news conference that the Police Service is deeply concerned about the escalation in murders and other violent crimes in Tobago.

Saying it had implemented several initiatives to address the scourge, including deploying Guard and Emergency Branch and Inter-Agency Task Force officers, she said as of July 8, officers were also transferred to Tobago to train frontline officers.

Harewood-Christopher said the police will also increase their technological capabilities with the use of CCTV cameras as well as intelligence-gathering by way of cyber crime and additional forensic capabilities.

There will also be a greater focus on an intermingling of officers from Trinidad and Tobago to allow for greater effectiveness.

But speaking in a video posted on his Facebook page on July 9, Duke said the meeting had no measurable outcomes.

“The meeting held regarding Tobago’s safety and security, crime and criminality was a good meeting for optics. It shows the Prime Minister and the Chief Secretary, they have come together, they have reconciled some level of differences,” he said.

“They have not met or discussed issues of a Tobago nature since the great ‘Audiogate’ scandal. So it was good for the optics.

"However, so far as it being prudent for the management of the criminal activities taking place in Tobago, I think it was not as desirable as we would have expected.

“There were no real outcomes that we can look forward to that the public can use to tell whether or not the plan is working, since there were no specific outcomes. There were no measurable outcomes. There were no achievable outcomes. There were no relevant outcomes.

"Therefore, it meant that the people of Tobago are still without answers.”

He said while Dr Rowley, Hinds, Harewood-Christopher and the other members of the National Security Council appeared disgusted and upset over Tobago’s worsening crime situation, “We have not heard the sound of decisiveness.

“We need to change the environment if we have to stop crime. We need to change the thinking if we have to stop crime.”