An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro says the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty is back­ing on­go­ing crime-re­duc­tion ef­forts in Trinidad and To­ba­go, with com­pa­nies and in­dus­try groups ac­tive­ly seek­ing part­ner­ships with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

Speak­ing dur­ing Con­ver­sa­tions with the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice at the T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce yes­ter­day, Gue­var­ro said there has been “100 per cent sup­port” from busi­ness­es, with sev­er­al cham­bers and as­so­ci­a­tions reach­ing out to the Of­fice of the Com­mis­sion­er for dis­cus­sions on col­lab­o­ra­tion.

“They are invit­ing me here to­day to speak to their mem­bers. I’ve got­ten no push­back. They’ve been wel­com­ing,” Gue­var­ro said, not­ing that con­ver­sa­tions are now shift­ing to­ward prac­ti­cal strate­gies to deep­en co­op­er­a­tion.

He said those en­gage­ments are still evolv­ing, with pro­pos­als ex­pect­ed to be for­malised in the near term. “Let’s wait till that rolls out, and we’ll come back to the me­dia, and I’ll let you know,” he not­ed.

The out­reach sig­nals a grow­ing align­ment be­tween law en­force­ment and the pri­vate sec­tor, par­tic­u­lar­ly as busi­ness­es con­tin­ue to weigh the eco­nom­ic im­pact of crime on op­er­a­tions, in­vest­ment, and con­sumer ac­tiv­i­ty.

Gue­var­ro al­so ad­dressed con­cerns about T&T’s in­ter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion, say­ing there has been no ev­i­dence of rep­u­ta­tion­al dam­age de­spite on­go­ing se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures.

“I have not seen any ev­i­dence of any rep­u­ta­tion­al harm from the out­side look­ing in,” he said.

In­stead, he point­ed to in­creased in­ter­est from for­eign part­ners, in­clud­ing of­fi­cials from the Unit­ed States, Cana­da, the Unit­ed King­dom, and across the Caribbean, who have been en­gag­ing with the TTPS on its crime-re­duc­tion strate­gies.

“They want to know how you get a 42 per cent re­duc­tion. That’s what every­body wants to mir­ror,” Gue­var­ro said, link­ing the de­cline in crime to co­or­di­nat­ed polic­ing ef­forts and tar­get­ed op­er­a­tions.

He out­lined that the re­sults are be­ing dri­ven by a com­bi­na­tion of en­force­ment strate­gies, ex­pand­ed op­er­a­tional co­or­di­na­tion, and sus­tained po­lice ac­tiv­i­ty.

“It’s law en­force­ment, all arms, every­body on board,” he said, adding that re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions and oth­er civ­il so­ci­ety groups have al­so ap­proached the TTPS seek­ing ways to as­sist.

Gue­var­ro added that the long-term goal re­mains achiev­ing sus­tained re­duc­tions in crime with­out ex­tra­or­di­nary mea­sures, but ac­knowl­edged that this will take time as cur­rent strate­gies are ful­ly im­ple­ment­ed.

For the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, the emerg­ing part­ner­ships could prove crit­i­cal, as stake­hold­ers push for a more sta­ble op­er­at­ing en­vi­ron­ment and im­proved in­vestor con­fi­dence.