Amcham calls for more action on crime

President of the American Chamber of Commerce of T&T (AmCham), Hugh Howard is calling for more action to be taken to fight crime. Howard was reacting to the statement made by National Security Minister Jack Warner earlier this week that crime had reduced by ten per cent between the period 2011 and 2012.

In September 2011, AmCham, the Energy Chamber, the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the T&T Manufacturers Association (TTMA) conducted an electronic survey to determine the financial impact of crime on business.

In an interview yesterday, Howard said there is no need to do another survey because “nothing had changed in the sense that, crime is still a major issue on the front burner. There’s no need for another survey, what we need to do is to try to pursuade the powers that be that they should implement certain conditions and take certain actions that would reduce the incidents of crime and generate more confidence in investors (to invest in T&T).”

He said investor confidence may be threatened. “People would not want to establish a business if they believe that their persons or their businesses would be subject to attack and more so, if you have a situation where the detection rate of criminal activity is very low, which is what we are experiencing here in T&T,” he said.

Howard said the crime problem creates a domino effect because it not only interferes with investor confidence but, it turns aways customers. “Customers stay away because of fear of being attacked or being subjected to some criminal kind of behaviour. it is highly necessary that we get the whole question of criminal activity under control, and that can only be accomplished with a strong police presence.”

Howard also has issues with the conviction rate. “The conviction rate is also pretty low. As you read all the timethey bring before the Courts (but) on many instances these people are freed sometimes on technicalities, as we saw during the State of Emergency, where they rounded up hundreds of persons and took them to court only to discover that there was a flaw in the way in which the things were done, so they had to release all these people.”

He said there is need to properly appoint a Police Commissioner and not have an acting one, or a situation where there is renewal of a contract.

“We need to have a substantive appointment of a Police Commissioner as a matter of Emergency because you want someone there who knows - I have the tenure, I have the authority and whatever I start I would be able to complete. It is not a question that I come up with something and two months down the road someone else is appointed and it starts from scratch again.”