Police knock police crime plan

UPDATED:

President of the Police Social and Welfare Association Ag ASP Michael Seales yesterday said police officers are dissatisfied with the strategies implemented by the Police Executive to deal with the crime which has seen almost 500 murders committed last year and 60 being committed in January alone.

“We cannot continue with the same strategies because while we got a historically high seizure of firearms, we also had 494 murders last year,” Seales said yesterday at a press conference in Port of Spain.

“These same strategies were implemented this month and we have reached for the first time ever, 60 murders in a month. It is time to do something different.”

He said members of the association have expressed dissatisfaction particularly with the strategy of ‘hotspot’ policing, which has been the main crime-fighting strategy over the past five years.

He said this method was deemed “restrictive” in terms of where officers are being deployed and the duties they have to perform.

While the strategy has resulted in the recovery of 1,064 firearms, Seales said there is no correlation between the number of firearms recovered and the murder rate.

He said crime has reached a stage where even members of the protective services are fearful for their lives.

“For the Association this is troubling.

We also have to look at the headlines where the Commissioner of Prisons is saying his men do not feel safe.

If they are an arm of the protective services and their men do not feel safe, it spells trouble for us.” Strategies which would boost police performance include analysis, proper use of technology and rebuilding confidence in the police service.

“One of the things we have come up with is to look at everything in a historical context to respond to what may happen in the future.

We need analysts on board to properly determine how crimes are spread out in sporadic ways, particularly murders.

Association secretary Insp Anand Ramesar said a fresh perspective is needed to combine the use of technology and intelligence with police work.

Seales suggested a platform where citizens can upload videos of crimes being committed without fear that they would be targeted. Between 2013 and 2017, 2,178 people were murdered.

ORIGINAL STORY:

With the murder toll standing at 60 for the first 30 days in the year, Police Social and Welfare Association president Michael Seales yesterday said police officers themselves are not satisfied with the strategies being used in the fight against crime.

Seales along with secretary of the Association, Anand Ramesar, cited a misuse of technology, a mismanagement of manpower and the lack of an official commissioner of police as some of the hindrances to police operating in an effective manner.